Icecream Sunday
by moon-soon
Summary: The story of how Carlos and Logan became good friends and how Kendall and James tried to sabotage them at every opportunity, will they were learn to co-exist as a group? probably not. Now Complete.
1. very first ice cream sunday

**Author's note: this is my first multi-chap story for btr (or that is the plan) is part of my and halfjillhalfjack fanfic tennis game, this story actually comes from several small drabbles I wrote for her (and then deemed them to short to actually post) so I have taken them to create a much larger story. Based around Carlos and Logan's friendship because I had a lot of fun doing it in villainous activity. So ah… here.**

It started in fourth grade; their teacher had assigned a project on the animal of their choosing. To be done in pairs. Fourth grade was the year the teacher caught on and split Kendall from the rest of his friends in classroom 4A instead of 4B meaning he couldn't be anyone's partner. It would have come down to who wanted to partner with James more but he was out for the week visiting his sick aunt.

So it was just Hortense and Carlos.

"This is lame" Kendall said for the millionth time, he kicked the empty swing with all his pent up ten-year-old aggression. His teacher (Mrs Frances) hadn't let his class choose partners and he was stuck working with Rupert 'paste eater' Harris. "I want to work with you Hortense," he whined and grabbed the swing, which was spinning out of control so the smaller boy could sit down on it.

Hortense sat down on the swing tentatively, "that would be difficult seeing we're not in the same class Kendall." He prepared his legs to kick off but Kendall grabbed at the seat, pulling back hard which propelled the swing forward. "That is also lame, next year if we get separated I'm quitting school" Carlos jumped into the empty swing next to the one in motion, "dad says were not aloud to quit school until were eighteen."

Kendall made a face, "not true" Hortense huffed, trying to slow the swing down but Kendall just push harder. "I think you can quit when you turn sixteen," Kendall grinned, stepping away from his swing and began pushing Carlos' instead. "I'll do that then, move to California with James when he becomes famous… that'll happen by the time we're sixteen right?" the boys shrugged, "probably not" Carlos sniggered, "besides" Hortense jumped off the swing mid-swing, "you have to finish school to become a hockey player, I think."

Kendall scowled, "aw- hockey pucks" the blaring sound of beeping broke them out of their concentration. A police car pulled up outside of the school, Carlos zipped off and the other two trailed behind.

"Hey boys" Mr Garcia called cheerfully, Carlos waved cheerful before screaming "shotgun!" and racing for the front, Kendall laughed and pulled Hortense along. "Thank you for the ride Mr Garcia," they chorused, Kendall opening the door for Hortense and they shuffled into the back. "Ha, ha" Carlos sang, "you guys are criminals" Mr Garcia shot Carlos a look and he quieted down, but stuck his tongue out at them through the grate when he wasn't looking.

"Your mum not picking you up Kendall?" Mr Garcia laughed at his son's antics, "no sir she has work, so does Hortense's mum- so we're gonna hang out at his house." Mr Garcia frowned, "your dad at work too?" Kendall flushed and Hortense grabbed his hand, "Kendall's dad's real busy at the moment, his job's keeping him tied up."

Mr Garcia smiled lightly at the boys, "well you know our open door policy Hortense, why don't you and Kendall spend the afternoon with Carlos." Kendall crossed his arms bitterly and turned to Hortense, "maybe you should go without me you and Carlos have to work on your project." Mr Garcia's ears perked up, "you and Hortense have a project together?" Carlos grinned widely and nodded, "score!" he told his son enthusiastically and they high fived, Kendall just sunk further into his seat.

"We're going to work on the project Sunday" Hortense told Mr Garcia on impulse, he hadn't actually discussed it with Carlos but Sunday seemed perfect. Sunday was Mrs Knight's day off, Kendall never hung out with Hortense on Sundays. "Sunday?" Carlos whined, "God says we have to rest that day Hortie, everyone knows that" Mr Garcia rolled his eyes, "I'm sure God would understand if it was for the good of your homework, Carlos" Carlos pouted and kicked the dashboard. "You'll be sorry when he sends a plague, God wouldn't want me to do homework on a Sunday."

"Luckily God isn't doing this project, we are, so we're doing it on Sunday." The car pulled up at the Garcia household, "you coming in?" Carlos asked the other boys, "nah" Kendall spoke up, "I need some help in math, and you get bored when we do homework." He followed up quickly, grasping Carlos' shoulder, he shrugged and walked off "see you tomorrow then" he called over his shoulder.

Hortense led them up the street, "you need help with math?" he asked curiously, not necessarily untrue just not something Kendall would worry about/admit to. "Nah" he stretched out his arms and slung them over his friend's shoulder, "but I needed to talk to you." Hortense stopped in a jolt, "about your dad?" Kendall studiously looked away, grabbing Hortense's sleeve and pulling at it to keep them moving. "It's weird," he admitted, "I don't think he's coming back…"

Hortense moved his arm around his shoulder into a half hug, "you've- you've said that before" he told him quietly. "And I meant it- after the divorce I thought he'd never come back- but then, one day he showed up to take me and Katie out." Hortense nodded, "and then you didn't see him for a month, how do you know it's not one of those times…"

Kendall didn't say anything, just laid his head on his friends shoulder as they walked, "mum's been angry, angrier than when she kicked him out- I think he's done. Done with us." Hortense pulled away from his friend and pulled out his key, unlocking the door. "I- I don't know what to say Kendall…" Kendall pushed past him opening the door and pulling the slighter boy inside.

"Don't- you don't have to say anything… I just need…" Kendall mumbled, "This is stupid- I never get to see you!" he kicked his shoes off and laid down dramatically face first on the couch. "You see me all the time" Hortense grinned, Kendall raised his head to glare, "no- you're with James or Carlos!" Hortense rolled his eyes, kicking Kendall's legs to sit down, "so are you- they're our best friends."

Kendall made an annoyed sound into the pillow, "I know but I- I wanted to talk to you, but you're never alone." Hortense smiled at him softly, putting his hand on his blond friends head, "we're alone now." Kendall shot up into sitting position and then twisted so his feet were resting in Hortense's lap, "I don't wanna talk now!" he said defiantly.

"Okay" Hortense replied awkwardly, "… do you wanna play smash brothers then?" Kendall looked at the TV then back at Hortense, "you know yeah! I really do!"

************-_BTR_-***************

Carlos woke Hortense up at 11.30 at night by throwing his stuffed bear at his window. Usually if he wanted to talk to Hortense late at night, he'd throw rocks- but he almost shattered a window last time he had a nightmare (he felt extremely lucky that's Hortense's mum took sleeping pills and his dad was away at that point.) He wasn't going to risk it though, so his old Mr Hugs-a-lot bear would have to do.

Hortense sleepily stuck his head out the window, "nightmare?" he asked softly, Carlos shook his head violently, "couldn't sleep- I thought you'd come over after Kendall left and then you didn't." Hortense rubbed his eyes sleepily, "you needed to talk about something?" Carlos shook his head more hesitantly this time, "no- I mean, yes I guess?"

"I'll open the door for you" Hortense replied more awake, Carlos raced to the back door, waiting impatiently for the other boy to come. Hortense's hair was sticking up and he was wearing lightning bolt pyjama pants and one of Kendall's old shirts (Kendall's mother had given them to Hortense and promised he would grow into them- he hadn't.) "Come in then," Hortense said, eyeing Carlos' superman pyjamas, bare feet and holding his hugs-a-lot bear close. He must look like a real kid, Carlos thought miserably.

"Right" he said softly, Hortense pulled back and lay down on his couch. Carlos liked the Mitchell's couch, like most of the furniture it seemed to be exclusively picked out by Hortense or his mum- so everything was comfortable (his mum's doing) and colour co-ordinated (Hortense's doing.) Carlos sat with his back firm to the couch's back, lifting his knees so he didn't sit on his friend's legs.

"Do you think Kendall hates me?" Carlos blurts out; it had been eating at him all day- Kendall had been pulling away from him. Glaring at him at lunch and not wanting to hang out after school even though he lives right down the street from Hortense. "What!" Hortense shot up, then winced lowering his voice, "what?" he repeated in a hushed voice (unnecessary really, his mother was out cold) Carlos shrugged helplessly "I- I dunno, he just hates me!"

Hortense crawls up the couch to embrace his shaking friend "Oh Carlitos- Kendall doesn't hate you" he pets his hair awkwardly- this was turning out to be one of those days. "He keeps glaring at me- a-a-a-uh and-" Hortense gripped him tighter, "oh Carlos, it's not you, I promise it's not you!" Carlos cried silently into Hortense's shoulder, and Hortense was struck how much easier it was for Carlos to open up to him than Kendall even though he and Kendall were closer. He'd never seen Kendall cry (except for when his dad left, which didn't count because anyone would cry over that.)

Hortense pulled himself out of that train of thought, "do you want to talk about it?" he asked and Carlos nodded, "what do you think upset him?" Hortense's fingers flexed and then pulled Carlos back from his chest, "he's just got a lot going on, he doesn't mean to take it out on you…" Carlos nodded, not completely satisfied but he let Hortense wiped away his tears with his sleeve and gave Hortense a watery grin.

"sooo-" Hortense began leaning back, far to alert now that it was close to midnight, "I was thinking whales." Carlos scratched his head, "whales?" Hortense grinned "for the project." Carlos gaped dramatically and then laughed, shoving Hortense off the couch, "No way! We're doing chimpanzees," he informed him, "they're majestic."

"Majestic?" Hortense asked, looking somewhere between amused and impressed, Carlos nodded a superior look on his face. "That's what the discovery channel says," Hortense laughed. "You watch the discovery channel?" Carlos nodded, "I was looking for the thing on the explosions- all I got was monkeys" he made a face. Hortense pulled himself up from the ground, "okay chimpanzees it is then!"

They shared a grin and Hortense yawned, "do you want me to walk you back?" Carlos shook his head, "Nah go back to bed Hortie, we'll work it out on Sunday," Hortense grinned, "okay!"

************-_BTR_-***************

That Sunday Carlos hovered outside of Hotense's house, not sure whether to go in. they had planned to meet at Hortense's before Carlos thought through what that meant- that meant being inside Mitchell household. In the daytime.

Carlos had never really been to the Mitchell house when it was light out, he usually saved visits for when he was in his pyjamas and needed a flashlight. It was the single weird quirk to a fairly standard relationship, Carlos got scared he came to Hortense. The same for when he wanted to talk about nothing and everything he'd talk to James or if he wanted to sort out his head he'd talk to Kendall.

This was messing with the natural order of things, he grumbled to himself (yes this was all about the natural order of things and had nothing to with his complete lack of desire to work on homework on the weekend.) He rang the doorbell, Mrs Mitchell opened the door sleepily, "oh hello Carlos" she said tiredly.

He winced at her appearance, "sorry Mrs Mitchell I didn't mean to wake you" she smiled at him ruffling his hair.

"No problem kiddo, I just stayed up late drawing some papers up for work." She let him in, the hallway look surprisingly similar in the light than the dark and Carlos breathed easier. "Hortense is in his room, he's been colour coding his highlighters and has checked out every book on chimpanzees from the library" she gave him a sympathetic smile. "You can blame his dad for that particular trait, I was never very organised- that's probably why I was a terrible student."

Carlos tried to imagine Hortense's giant, scary military dad in a sweater vest organising highlighters and he bit back a bubble of laughter. "Thanks Mrs Mitchell" he told her politely, she patted him on the head and then shuffled over to the counter picking up her sleeping pills smiling at him. "Good thing it's Sunday- day of rest you know."

"That's what I said!" Carlos exclaimed and she grinned wider and moved off to her bedroom, Carlos jumped up the stairs two at a time. "Hooorrrtttttenssssse" he yelled, sliding his hand up the banister, feeling the eagre to slide down it. Hortense's head poked out of his room, "Carlos!" He radiated happiness- just from seeing Carlos, (that always felt pretty cool!)

Carlos followed Hortense back into the room, it was… messier than he expected. Papers strewn on the floor, books on every surface stacked in a precarious manner. Everything was clean- impeccably so, but not tidy. Hortense followed Carlos' gaze and chuckled awkwardly "yeah- my mum's a neat freak, I think it's like compensation for her long hours" he waved his hands, Carlos was aware Hortense practically lived alone a lot of the time. "My rooms like a safe haven, she doesn't clean in here."

Carlos scrunched his nose; his mother still cleaned his room (and totally went through his stuff) "why?" Hortense shrugged "dad says every man needs a space that is completely his own."

"So" he clapped his hands, "what do you know about chimpanzees?" Carlos struggled, trying to think of what the British narrator-man had said in the documentary. "They're… endangered?" he said unsurely, Hortense smiled one of his blinding smiles he favoured when Carlos or the other boys did something particularly intelligent. "That's right!" Carlos beamed; he couldn't help but be a little enthusiastic about the project in the face of Hortense's excitement.

Hortense had spent all week leading up to this Sunday brainstorm ideas to make doing the assignment more fun for Carlos. He grabbed at interesting facts to help move the subject along and peppering everything with his unique brand of humour, which left Carlos in stiches. Carlos repaid him by trying to keep attentive as possible and help Hortense work out the computer (Hortense coming from a fairly Computer illiterate family, and Carlos' mum being a computer wiz.)

************-_BTR_-***************

Carlos dragged Hortense up the street to his house for lunch, where an adult would make them lunch (most likely his mum since his dad was working.) "MUM, I'M HOME!"

Mrs Garcia smiled at them widely when they entered the house, Hortense hopped up on one of the stools for the breakfast nook. They were the swivel kind and he pushed himself round and round until he felt nauseous, Carlos grinned at his friend's antics and turned to his mother. "Could we have lunch?" he asked, "please?" Hortense asked still spinning, "yes- **please** can we have lunch."

The Garcia household was a lot different to the Mitchell's; for starters Carlos had four older siblings. The traces of teenager lingered everywhere throughout the house and pictures hung off every wall cataloguing their journey to adulthood with painstaking documentation. Hortense's house didn't really have photos, just two- because sometimes him mum used their house as a show house when she threw parties for work.

His dad kept a photo of him on his person at all times and Hortense thought that's what really mattered- but the photos in this house showed clearly what Hortense's house didn't have. This was a house that was loved; this was a home.

Mrs Garcia was bright and warm, she and his mum had always been girlfriends since long before Carlos and Hortense ever spoke. They were both highly driven, though while Mrs Mitchell always gave a sense of high powered carer women, Mrs Garcia was a little more homemaker with another job. When she was home she did a million things, always cleaning and cooking (sometimes at the same time) and wore a welcoming smile.

She stacked two large lunchboxes on the bench and slid them over to Carlos, "How's the project going boys?" Carlos beamed at her; "I've gotten loads done" he threw up his hands in excitement. Her eyes slid over to Hortense for confirmation, "he's been really brilliant Mrs Garcia, we're probably going to be done a week early!"

She sent Carlos a look of absolute pride, and then a softer fond one to Hortense, who flushed in response. "You can eat these in the tree house if you like" she offered, Carlos' eyes went wide, "really?" She nodded, "don't tell your brothers and sisters though okay?" he nodded solemnly, putting the lunch boxes under his arm and grabbing Hortense's arm with the other.

"THANKS MUM" he yelled dragging Hortense down the corridor which led to the backyard, "mum never lets us eat up there" he told Hortense quietly, looking around wildly for any of his siblings, who were playing some loud videogame in a very involved manner. "She's afraid of racoons and rats- I don't get it though, there are no racoons in the kitchen and that's where all the real food is."

************-_BTR_-***************

Hortense surveyed the backyard- Hortense didn't have much of a backyard, just a little garden mostly forgotten by everyone. Carlos' backyard was made for kids! A swing set sat in one corner with a large slide, on the other side was a trampoline and the middle of the yard was a large tree, and a rope ladder dropping from one of it's branches.

"Cool!" Carlos nodded smugly and Hortense's reaction "the others don't really come out here much anymore so it's practically mine." Hortense's eyes widened, and Carlos dragged him until they were right close to the tree, "the tree house is mine though," he told him. He let go of his arm and handed him the boxes, climbing up the rope ladder with practiced ease, about halfway up he let go of one hand and lent down. He snatched up the boxes and throwing them into the now visible tree house.

"Come on!" he called down; as Hortense hesitantly touched the rope, "maybe I'll just wait until you get off it" he called back. "Come on you big baby" he yelled, "It can hold our weight, dad climbs up here sometime and he's worth at least three of us." Hortense rolled his eyes and jumped onto the bottom rung, the rope held in place and his climbed a little higher, "this isn't bad" he sighed with relief.

Of course this was when Carlos decided to swing the rope, "stop it!" Hortense shrieked clutching tightly until his knuckles went white. "Nah" Carlos sung, "nah," and then thinking of the Beetles song "nah, nah, na, na, na, naaaaaa" Hortense pulled himself down and then jumped off the rope. It took Carlos a couple of seconds to understand what happened, "what! No fair Hortense, get up here so we can eat."

"Nah uh," Hortense called stubbornly, not looking up in case Carlos was doing that thing he liked to do with his eyes. "Come on Hooorrrrrtttttiiie," Hortense chanced to look up and yep he was doing that thing with his eyes, "will you swing the rope?" Carlos laughed "probably." Hortense took to steps away from the tree, crossing his arms grumpily, "let's just eat on the trampoline."

"What! No way- I won't do it again Hortense I promise" Carlos called waving wildly Hortense shook his head firmly. "Come on we need to cure your fear of heights" Carlos tried, "no we don't" Hortense said stubbornly. "Yes we do, what if we need to crawl in a air vent one day- you can't do that if you're afraid of heights!"

"Why would I need to crawl into a air vent?" Hortense asked curiously, "to get away from the bad guys!" Carlos exclaimed like it was obvious, "and in what universe would I be chased by bad guys?" Carlos shrugged "it could happen." Hortense sighed, "fine" he muttered, jumping up to the bottom rung and climbing quickly. True to his word, Carlos didn't swing the rope this time and even stretched out his hand to help him up from the final rung onto the solid wooden floor.

"Hooray!" Carlos cheered moving back to let Hortense breath, "this" he gestured proudly, "is the tree house." It was bigger than Hortense expected, with beanbag chairs and a small table. Carlos had obviously at one point painted the room in nauseatingly bright colours in a very slap dash manner, it defiantly seemed like it belonged to Carlos.

"It's… nice." Carlos grinned at him and flopped down on the beanbag chair, "we should do the assignment up here next time." Carlos sighed, hands behind his head and eyes closed. "How do you expect me to drag my computer up here? I hope you have several extension cords handy" Hortense joked, Carlos hand waved him "details- just details."

"**Important** details, Carlos" Hortense reminded him lightly, and picked up the lunchbox on the top and threw it at Carlos. It smacked Carlos in the face, "ahh!" he rubbed his face angrily, "keep your eyes on the game" Hortense teased, Carlos continued to rub his face but looked less angry, more annoyed. "You know, nobody believes me when I say you're a hockey player, if they only knew how violent you are."

Hortense flexed his muscles, "I was born to be an enforcer baby" he shot Carlos a smirk and Carlos laughed. "Yeah and you'd be eating ice in three minuets flat, Hort your so light you bounce off people!" Hortense scowled and Carlos just laughed harder, Carlos opened his lunchbox and stuffed food blindly into his mouth.

Hortense opened his lunch box a little more reverently and then gapes at the content. "Carlos…" he said unsurely, "yuhuh" he looks up half a fruit rollup sticking out of his mouth and in the process of trying to cram an entire cupcake in as well. "This is a lot of food" Carlos never brought this amount to school as far as he knew, but then again Carlos had usually eaten most of his food before lunch and then scabbed food from his friends.

"You think?" Hortense was notorious among his friends for his lack of appetite, but Carlos had always assumed he ate more when he got home or simply didn't like to eat in front of people like his sister did. Carlos looked into his lunchbox; three wrapped sandwiches were piled neatly next to two cupcakes, cubed cheese and crackers, two containers (one with jelly, the other pudding) and an apple. Was that a lot?

Hortense picked up a sandwich from his container (which seemed even fuller than Carlos) and unwrapped it, placing it on the table. He sat in front of the table cross legged and started to pulled the crusts away in what Carlos would once have classified a prissy manner and now knew was just Hortense wanting his food to be neat (it still seemed sort of prissy.) He pulled himself up off the beanbag and sat at the table across from Hortense, mimicking his actions and siting cross-legged.

He tipped the contents of his lunchbox on the table, spreading his food out and staring at it. "This is a lot of food isn't it?" Hortense shrugged "it sort of reminds me of a bento box except without the dividers- does your mum always pack this much?" Carlos nods, "what's a bento box?"

"A Japanese lunchbox consisting of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container." He rattled off and then flushed, "okay not exactly like a bento box- just how it was set out, your mum put little designs of the cupcakes and carved hearts out of cheese cubes." Carlos looked down and realised that he was right, everything had been set out in a very pretty and formulated manner… before Carlos had wrecked it.

"Don't be such a smarty pants" he mumbled seething in jealousy, he was used to feeling jealous of Hortense in school, that was normal, and everything Hortense knew about a bento box that was cool but in the end, useless. Noticing how much effort his mum had put into their lunches wasn't though, it was the kind of thing that would make her beam at him and probably cook his favourite meal for dinner. It was something that Carlos just wouldn't have noticed, and Hortense just did. And that made him jealous.

Carlos' words stung a little, he and James would sometimes mutter that kind of thing at him whenever his intelligence was working against them and not for them. It's why he ended up gravitating towards Kendall, who was smart in an understated way and always appreciated his comments even when not particularly useful.

"Sorry Hortense" Carlos said quickly, "I didn't mean-" Hortense finished his sandwich and stacked the love heart cheese between his crackers and held them in one hand. "It's fine Carlos," he told him, and it was mostly. Fine, that is, "we're done for today, so I'm just going to head home." Carlos lunged for his hand and Hortense started to stand, they knocked into each other sending them backwards. Hortense was stretched out, head and shoulders hanging out of the tree house all together, Carlos half on top of him clutching him tightly.

"Don't go" Carlos pleaded, Hortense breathed heavily trying not to look down, "who's going anywhere" he squeaked, "if I don't fall I might never leave." Carlos got off him pulling him up into a sitting position. "Do you mean it?" Hortense trying to catch his breath, "no Carlos, I was using sarcasm" Carlos' eyebrows furrowed "sarcasm?"

"As in a form of wit that is cutting, often ironic remark intended to wound, basically you say one thing in a certain way when you mean another" Hortense explained. Carlos nodded hesitantly, "so like when mum says she's fine but really she's mad?" he asked curiously, "no that's not it," Hortense responded smiling slightly, "okay" Carlos said determinedly "what about when Alexis says she's going out with a friend and really she's seeing her boyfriend?" Hortense laughed, "does your sister really do that?" Carlos nods, "well that's not it, that's just lying."

Carlos gasped, "Alexis is lying?" Hortense pulls himself up off the ground, "that's generally what they call it when someone says something other than the truth" Carlos looks genuinely shocked. "I didn't know girls could lie!" Hortense laughs loudly now, "Carlos girls are just as capable of-" Carlos cuts him off, "does that mean my mum? *gasp* or Miss Cutner was lying when she said I did a good job at school on Friday… or was that… sarcasm."

"Did you do a good job?" Hortense asked curiously, "yes!" Carlos cried defensively, "and did she smile at you when she said it?" Carlos wracked his brain "yes?" Hortense smiled, "then she was probably telling the truth- just because you can lie doesn't mean you do it all the time." Carlos let out a sigh of relief, "okay but now I'm even more confused."

"That's okay, not everyone uses sarcasm and half the people that do don't use it correctly." Carlos felt relief wash over him; it was just another useless fact then, "why do you use it then?" Hortense shrugged, "force of habit?"

Carlos grabbed Hortense's hands, "come and get ice cream with me?" he asked sincerely, "err" Hortense murmured, he wasn't ever going to be used to the amount of physical affection his friends enjoyed. "Don't walk away mad" Hortense smiled at him and leaned in to hug him "I'm not mad at you Carlos, we are actually done" Carlos grinned into his shoulder. "So you can come?"

"Fine." Hortense looked at the little wooden room, the crackers and cheese scattered and smeared on the floor, "we should pick this up, before the raccoons come."

"But there's a perfectly good kitchen for them to eat-" Carlos whined.

************-_BTR_-***************

Carlos and Logan skated the several blocks to Hal's ice creamery, the Carlos' most favourite street in the whole town. It not only had an ice cream place, but and arcade and was right by the hockey rink and the library (but nobody cared about that one but Hortense.)

They were trying out some new skating tricks, Hortense was the better skater of the two (taught by the very enthusiastic Kendall) but Carlos was more daring. Carlos was skating backwards and trying to jump from the curb to the road and Hortense was doing the infinitely less dangerous weaving. Carlos pulled out in front of Hortense, still skating backwards "get out of the way Carlos" Hortense told him crossly, "no" Carlos replied defiantly.

"Why not" Hortense asked, Carlos shrugged grabbing Hortense's hands and spinning them around so they were skating in circles as well as being propelled forward. "Carrrllloosss-" Hortense yelled fearfully and Carlos just cackled and span them faster, "we're going to crassshhhh!"

They spun for a few minuets until Carlos let go of one hand until they were merely skating hand in hand instead of the more dangerous stunt they had been doing. "So why are we getting ice cream?" Hortense asked curiously, "aw poor deprived Hortie, one doesn't **need** a reason for ice cream you just have to **want** ice cream" Carlos told him sagely. "Deep man, very deep" Hortense snorted, and Carlos just nodded smugly.

Carlos skidded to a stop, he still had Hortense's hand so he stopped as well, smacking hard into Carlos' side. "Ow" Hortense moaned, Carlos rubbed Hortense's arm gently until the pain ebbed away, "we're here." He looked up, 'Hal's' had a giant window that took up most of the front wall and looked a little like a 50s diner (and at one point might have been a 50s diner.) The counter ran longways, with stools on one side and staff on the other, the rest of the area was scattered with tables.

"mmmmm," Carlos hummed skating in and over to the counter, looking at the ice cream option from behind the glass. "Hello there" a pretty teenaged worker told him, he blushed and looked to where Hortense was taking off his skates and putting on his street shoes. "What do you want Hortie?" he yelled, trying to not look at the girl again, in fear of blushing when Hortense could see and make fun of him.

"Um…" Hortense came over, looking at the options carefully nose scrunching up, "there are so many options- how would you decide?" he asked the girl behind the counter (her name tag read Dorothy; like the dinosaur or the girl who refused to take off the red shoes) she smiled widely. "Oh I've worked here for a while, so I know what I like" Hortense's face scrunches up even further, that wasn't very helpful, "but…" she leant down and pulled up a tray and pulled out a bunch of samples. "We can try a few, the place is dead so I don't think my boss would mind."

Hortense's eyes went wide, "so what do you normally like sweetie?" Hortense shrugged, "mum says ice cream is bad for you, so I only get any when dad's around and she's not looking." Carlos gasped in horror, "That must be almost never" Hortense grinned at his horrified expression, "next to never."

Dorothy started filling the taste testers with enthusiasm, "that's just wrong my tiny friend" she filled ten and handed Hortense the first one. "This is a ice cream staple, vanilla," Hortense scooped out some and handed the rest to Carlos and they both tried- it was sweet. "It's… nice" he said, Carlos rolled his eyes "nobody likes vanilla- it's BORING!"

"Vanilla is not boring" Dorothy winked at Hortense, "Vanilla goes with everything… just like chocolate!" she handed him the next little cup, Hortense grinned, he knew what chocolate tasted like "mmm" he said appreciatively and Carlos snatched it out of his hands "don't hog!"

After a few more flavours Hortense found the flavour for him, "this is it!" He said excitedly- bubble-gum had been sickeningly sweet and coffee had tasted to weird but this… was perfect. Carlos took the cup, "cool dude! This is my favourite too!" he grinned widely, "We'll take two, two scoops of rainbow please," he said excitedly. Dorothy complied and pushed the other samples to the side- customers were starting to trail in now, so they wouldn't go to waste.

They sat at one of the tables after Carlos paid and Hortense thanked Dorothy repeatedly and elbowed Carlos to do the same. They sat opposite, legs swinging and licking at their ice creams. "Yours is dripping" Carlos said pointing to the side of his ice cream, where a rainbow trail was stark against the brown of his waffle cone. Hortense lifted it and licked it clean, "you didn't have to pay," he told Carlos, but look pleased about it anyway.

"Sit's sokayy" he muffled between great bites "mum gave me the money- so it was more like she paid for it." Hortense's smile didn't fade, "it was still nice though."

"Carlos" he said quietly, and Carlos looked up, his face was a smear of rainbow, "I- I had a lot of fun hanging out with you" he gave him a shy smile. Carlos beamed at him, "me too!"

************-_BTR_-***************

James was back from his aunts on Monday and was thoroughly annoyed he missed out on choosing assignment partners with either Carlos (the fun option) or Hortense (the smart option.) Instead he got Jill Werder who had been out sick that week (who was super cute so it wasn't a total waste.)

He was working up a good sulk though, and he didn't want it to go to waste, so he sat moodily on the playground at lunch and brooded (okay pouted- he wouldn't perfect the brood until he was fourteen.) Kendall ran up to him, he had several of the best balls under his arm after a fierce battle with Andrew Ricter, a known ball hog. "Hey James your back!" he said enthusiastically punting one of the balls into James lap.

"Hey Kenny," James said morosely, Kendall's nose scrunched up at the use of his least favourite nickname. "What's up your butt James?" He shot at him, James crossed his arms angrily, "God Kendall your so **insensitive**, can you see I'm upset, what are you blind?" he taunted back, and then when back to sulking, because cool guys brooded, they didn't get into stupid fights with one of their best friend.

Kendall sighed in a put upon manner, he loved James but it was always all about him- Carlos was much better at handling him; he just sort of riled him up. He sat down next to him at the base of the monkey bars, "why don't you tell me about it" he offered in what he thought must be a generous manner. "It's Carlos and Hortense" James cried, "oh?" Kendall responded eyebrows raised, "their partners for our project!" Kendall's face darkened, remembering that little fact "oh."

"I'm gonna fail" James wailed, "you would fail if you had Carlos anyway" Kendall offered helpfully. "Dude!" James said outraged, feeling the need to defend Carlos' honour in his absence (not that Carlos would have minded or understood the comment) Kendall shrugged. "It's true, I bet Hortense had to do everything- they worked on it all Sunday" James eyes widened "all Sunday? I bet Carlos was so bored!"

"Nuh uh, Hortense said he and Carlos did a really good job and they're gonna work on it this Sunday" Kendall told him informatively, if not a little annoyed. "WHAT!" James responded dramatically, "Carlos and I were gonna have a sleepover" Kendall's eyes widened, "I'm sure Hortense didn't know! When do you make plans?" James shrugged, "I didn't I just thought of it then" Kendall sighed, "but if they weren't doing the assignment then me and Carlos could be hanging out then."

"Then hang with him on Saturday, you can do your assignment on Sunday- you are a week behind" James hand waved, "this is more important than Saturday Kendall, Hortense and Carlos are like friends now- I saw them!" Kendall rolled his eyes "James they've always been-" James grabbed Kendall so they were almost nose to nose, "no Kendall, they're like real friends now and that means-"

"Less time for best friends" Kendall finished with horror, "Hortense wouldn't do that!" James flopped off the bar and onto the sand, "it's too late, it's already started," Kendall shook his head furiously, "but- but the assignments over soon, so everything should go back to normal." James just shrugged unsurely, frowning.

Hortense caught Kendall's eye from across the playground waving wildly, Kendall smiled weakly and waved back, Hortense pulled Carlos along who was holding a skipping rope.

"Hey guys wanna play jump rope?" Hortense asked excitedly as Carlos brandished the rope proudly, "we had to steal it off vicious Vicky but it was worth it!" Kendall nodded unsurely, but smiled when Hortense hugged Kendall when he got close enough- nothing had changed really.

"Jump rope is for girls" James complained and looked at Carlos expectantly to agree, Carlos just cross his arms. "We don't need you then, Hortense does gymnastics and I wanna see what he can do with a rope" he threw one end to Kendall. James looked up in surprise, "o-okay fine then" he backed down. Hortense flung and arm over Carlos' shoulder, "me and Carlos were practicing this morning with a tree, and Carlos kept falling."

Carlos went beetroot red and they both laughed, Carlos shoved him fondly, "it's not my fault you're like a jump rope ninja." He ruffled Hortense's hair and Kendall glared (nobody ruffled his hair but him and Hortense was just letting him!) Hortense pushed Carlos away so Carlos could stand the appropriate distance, "in the honour of our primate friends" Hortense called, Carlos giggled, "I will attempt to do the monkey while jumping rope!"

"Chimpanzees are apes not monkeys Hortie" Carlos called giggling madly, and Hortense beamed at him, "that right Carlos- never the less…" he began jumping as Carlos and Kendall swung the rope.

Kendall and James shared a look. James was right, something clearly needed to be done, and this was already clearly out of control.

**Please review.**


	2. things to do with trees

**Author's note: moon soon does not speak Spanish, just to clarify, so that sentence is from a translator and might be completely incorrect. Also this chapter is dedicated to CheekyBrunette and MyWonderLand209 for their rocking reviews which totally made my day (halfjillhalfjack doesn't get one because this story was written for her, so ha.) on a side note, my direction has changed a little, it is not just a story of how Carlos and Logan became friends but of how all of them became super best friends like they are in the show. So keep that in mind because there is not as much Carlos and Hortense friendness in this chap as the last one.**

James stared Carlos down, his concentration fixed with frightening intensity. Carlos gulped, his throat twitching and beads of sweat rolled from his forehead down his cheek and pooling at his collarbone. James' eyes widened a little with effort and he lifted his hand carefully to pull his hair away from his eyebrows where they had been threatening to fall into his eyes. Carlos' lip twitched once, twice and the tell tale sign of a spasm of his eyelids confirmed he was going to-

A large bang broke both of their concentration; they both blinked rapidly and quickly turning to face their teacher Mr Rodrigues. His mouth was in a thin line and his arms were crossed over his chest, his eyebrow twitched momentarily. "I" he started slowly, "have come to expect this utter nonsense from you two." He took in a tell tale sharp breath, "but the blatant disrespect of a…" he searched for the word "staring contest" James supplied helpful, and then began to regret as he glared, "in **my** classroom."

"Technically it's not your classroom" Hortense blurted out before he could stop himself, Mr Rodrigues turned to give his a ferocious look. "Excuse me, Mr Mitchell" Hortense sank into his seat pathetically and James piped up almost immediately, "he's right, this isn't your classroom, this is Miss Cutner's classroom- your just the Spanish teach, your only here like twice a week."

Mr Rodrigues fumed, "**just** a Spanish teacher" he turned his attention back to Hortense, as if he had said it. "I will not tolerate this disrespect" he wheeled on the two other boys "from anyone!" he gave them a self-satisfied smirk "unless you could teach the class better," Carlos opened his mouth, but Hortense leaned over and smacked him. "Of course not Mr Rodrigues, we meant no disrespect," Hortense soothed.

He turned sharply, stalking back up to the front of the class like a jungle cat. "Don't start anything Carlos" Hortense hissed, "You either James, class is over in a few minuets." Both boys sunk into their chairs- being chastised by Hortense, was way worse than by Mr Rodrigues. Carlos pouted and then caught James' eye, "so who won?" he hissed at him, the other shrugged, "I did!"

"Did not!" he admonished "then why did you ask, you obviously don't know" James told him smugly, so Carlos grab the pretty boy's hand and bent it back. James eyes went wide, pricked with tears- it wasn't particularly painful just a shock. He shoved Carlos roughly, "knock it off Carlos" he his and trained his eyes to the board letting out a small smirk, "I'm trying to learn."

Carlos groaned, "you wont from here, Mr Rodrigues mangles everything" James tried to stifle a laugh- not well enough it seems as the man gave the two another terrifying glare. Which seemed to set the class off in a titter, which the teacher desperately tried to get under control. Hortense turned around in his chair to face the two disobedient boys, "you two are **so **failing Spanish" Carlos crossed his arms proudly, "I'm not!" Hortense snickered "you do realise verbal is only like 40% your still going to have to do the written" Carlos' face fell "which you can't."

"Yeah well what's so great about Spanish?" James mumbled, "No sé, lo que es grande sobre el español Carlos?" Hortense asked and Carlos grinned brightly "todo!" James looked slowly from one to another and crossed his arms, "you guys suck."

The bell rang.

Hortense turned around to slowly and methodically pack up his things and James poked him in the side. "You coming over?" he asked quietly, Carlos nodded excitedly "I cleared it with mum and everything- though she said the next time you want to have a sleepover on a school night it has to be at my house." James grinned widely, "your house is better anyway" Carlos shook his head, "you've got the flat screen… and the pool!"

"Yours is still better" James assured him, Hortense turned around "are you going straight to James, Carlos?" he asked, James feigned horror "were you ease dropping Hortense?" Hortense flushed "no!"

"Yeah I am" Carlos cut over whatever would be James next response and then slapped his forehead, "so… my dad can't pick you up…" James' eyes went wide already trying to work out what to say to his nanny to get him to drop his friend home. "It's fine" Hortense squeaked, noting the look James was giving him, "Kendall and I were going to walk home- I just wanted to be sure we were all on the same page."

Carlos made a face, "Hortie, I don't read things" Hortense laughed "your more literate than you know Carlitos" he responded easily, then wished them goodbye and gathered up his things. An impatient blonde was waiting for at the door, bouncing on his heels and making a menace of himself for anyone trying to pass through the doorway.

************-_BTR_-***************

Kendall seemed to be in a better mood today, He had won five games of foursquare at lunch and had gotten 17/20 on his math test. He had practically run the whole way over to 4B when the bell rang, paying no heed to the fact that his teacher hadn't said they could go (they bell totally overruled her anyway.) Hortense's classroom was still full of people, they had Spanish at the end of the day on Wednesdays and Mr Rodrigues was kind of evil.

He traced the brick of the building, running his fingers in-between the brick and followed the cement lines. The doors open and a rush of people and wall of sound rushed out. He stood like an unmovable rock; most people by knew it was better to just get out of his way. He stuck his elbow out to catch Billy Jessup in the chest, and smirked in satisfaction when he shuddered in pain. He'd been spreading some rumours about him and his friends and Kendall always felt extremely satisfied when he could get even in some small physical way.

The rush of people stopped and still no Hortense, Kendall scrunched up his nose, this was messing up his carefully co-ordinated schedule for what he and his best friend were going to do this afternoon. He had actually spent all of math planning it (he figured he didn't have to try now he'd hit the 50% mark.)

Kendall stuck his head in the door; cocking his head at Hortense who was carefully packing up and sorting through books, behind him James and Carlos were talking. Hortense asked them something, turning and the two bantered lightly with him. He hoped Hortense hadn't forgot about their plans (he had sacrifice math for those plans!) But Hortense turned and caught sight of him giving him a huge smile.

When he got to the door Kendall yanked him through, "took you long enough slow poke," Kendall admonished him and Hortense grinned easily at him. "Good things come to those who wait Kendall and I" he gestured sillily "am awesome." Kendall snorted pulling his friend down for a friendly noogie, "you are, aren't you Hortense?" Hortense just laughed in response and let Kendall drag him to the gate.

"Where are we going?" Kendall gave him a sneaky look "to home base…" home base was a place just for the two of them, not even Carlos and James went there (not that they knew about it.) Hortense waited patiently as Kendall sat down on the bench in front of the school and pulled out his skates carefully putting them on. "I'll grab my bike" Hortense said decidedly rushing to grab his bike before Kendall finished lacing his skates.

Kendall skated out in front skating backwards, watching Hortense mount and start riding; he caught up quickly and began to overtake. "Hey!" Kendall yelled out in annoyance, Hortense slowed down, "now whose the slow poke" Hortense jeered but slowed even further until he and Kendall were side by side. "You wreck all my plans" Kendall complained and grabbed onto the back of his bike, "okay speed up" he screamed and Hortense took off at top speed again.

Hortense slowed and finally stopped once they reached the creek close to Kendall's house. Kendall flung off his skates and Hortense chained up his bike up to the tree, Kendall rolled up his jeans and waded across the low water of the creek until he got to the other side. "Hurry up Hortie" he beckoned the boy to cross in the same manner and rolled his eyes when Hortense walked across the plank that connected the two banks.

"Weak" he complained loudly, "you just think it's weak because you didn't think of it" Hortense told him sticking his tongue out. Kendall rolled his eyes, "you have no sense of adventure" and then ran out into where the soft grass became covered in pine needles and the trees became frequent and thick. Hortense followed slowly, "your going to be sorry when I have to pull pine needles out of your feet" he sang, "there called pine **needles** for a reason."

Here he said turning dramatically and falling under a tree, pine needles sticking to his back and tangled up in his messy blond hair. Hortense sat down gingerly next to him, crossing his legs and placing a hand on the tree. "Are you sure this is the right tree?" he asked curiously, Kendall nodded enthusiastically and then snorted as Hortense groped wildly at the tree. He leaned over pressing his hand flat on the trunk running it smoothly until he felt a gap, which he then hooked his fingers into. A section of the tree swung away and the tree was hollowed out, it held lots of items that might belong to a ten-year-old boy.

"I was thinking…" Hortense told Kendall, pulling out a twinkie and ripping into it, "that this can't be good for the tree." Kendall snatched the twinkie taking a large bite from it and passing it back, "I don't think twinkies are good for anyone Hort, let alone a tree" he muffled swallowing his mouthful of sponge and cream. "Not even close to what I meant" Hortense glared hugging his twinkie close and out of Kendall's reach.

"I meant about the hole in the tree" he clarified, "oh- well we saved the tree Hortense," he told him confidently; Hortense raised an eyebrow and willed him to continue. "I mean it's the coolest tree here now, I'm sure it has all sort of success with the lady trees," Hortense grinned, "who says it's a male tree after all it does have a ho-" Kendall's eyes widened "did we give the tree a sex change operation?"

He flung himself at the tree, hugging it tightly "I'm sorry Mr/Mrs tree" Hortense poked Kendall's side. "Why is the tree married?" Kendall glared, "cause it's a super cool tree, I'm sure another super cool tree realised this and they had a small tree commitment ceremony with a few close friends." Hortense laughed hard and tickled Kendall's side, Kendall let go of the tree with a bubble of laughter.

He grabbed Hortense's wrist and tackled him, pinning him to the ground and ticking the smaller boy. "Quit it!" Hortense laughed pushing at the blonde's chest, he got a little leverage over Kendall and rolled flipping their positions. "You are now at my mercy" Hortense cackled, Kendall just tickled harder until Hortense collapsed in giggles, "VICTORY!" Kendall cried and threw a few pine needles at Hortense, who in turn threw them back.

They both breathed hard, and Hortense laid on the ground, "so what did you want to talk about?" Kendall ignored him choosing to dig into the tree, pulling out a picture of them instead- they were eight, barely friends at that point but they were smiling toothily and Kendall was looking at Hortense with a look of absolute happiness. He knew at that moment Hortense would always be his best friend.

He looked up at his friend, mimicking the look from the picture; he knew he still felt the same way. "Kendall?" Hortense asked sitting up, "what did you need to talk about?" Kendall looked momentarily at the tree; Carlos missing blankie was just below a stack of twinkies (stolen to prevent Carlos from having a blankie at ten) he chucked the picture over it, obscuring it from view.

"It's not important right now," Kendall sighed, he didn't want to talk about Carlos with Hortense- it made him feel stupid and insecure and then Hortense would think he was stupid and insecure. He lay down next to Hortense and squeezed his hand momentarily, Hortense squeezed back, they were having a moment- Hortense wasn't sure why, but it felt important.

"So… why do you think we weren't invited to Mr/Mrs tree's wedding?"

************-_BTR_-***************

Carlos flopped on James' bed, it was the twice the size of Carlos' bed (in fact James' room was roughly twice the size of Carlos' room as well.) he rolled onto his stomach, hugging the bed, "mmmm bed" he muffled happily into the comforter, he felt a tap on his back and he wiggled away from it. The tap persisted and Carlos shoulders thrashed angrily.

A hand reached out grabbing a handful of his shirt and hauled him up, "Carlos!" James admonished, "It's not bedtime" Carlos hugged the bedding close; it had come up with him when James ripped him from the bed. "Bedtime is all the time when you have a bed like this!" he scratched at James pettily, who howled and dropped Carlos. Carlos took this as a sign of victory and burrowed under blankets and pillows.

James rubbed his hand pouting, "you said we could camp out in my backyard," Carlos head popped out from the bedding, "did not!" James crossed his arms "did too!" Carlos shook his head violently; "I didn't- did you have the conversation in your head again… you know I can't hear you in there" James sat on the bed, "maybe I was talking to my mirror…" he muttered.

"Exactly" Carlos called out, "I'm all tired now anyway- we played four hours of basketball and I had to learn and stuff as well!" James laughed, "When do you learn stuff Carlos?" Carlos didn't bother lifting his head this time, just raised his middle finger, "go to hell James, I'm awesome at learning and stuff."

"Who told you that?" James couldn't imagine any teacher praising Carlos for knowledge retention; he had spent the last hour of school in a staring contest. "Hortense did, he says I have potential" Carlos told him haughtily, but looking so pleased with himself that James couldn't help but mutter, "potential is **all** you have."

"So camping" James redirected, "we have to go camping, we need to practice for the summer so Kendall doesn't make fun of us like last year." Carlos groaned, "It's not fair! Kendall's a boy scout, he has more experience!" James added sourly "and you'll notice he didn't give Hortense any grief- as usual" Carlos smacked him in the arm, "Hortense didn't deserve any grief, he read like a bazillion camping manuals before we went- he can pitch a tent better than any of us."

James sniggered, "do you know that first hand then Carlos?" Carlos stared blankly for a second and then went bright red, "dude no! Gross!" he threw a pillow at him, and James threw one back. Carlos had unfortunately messed with James' hair, so now it was serious business.

After several minuets of James attempting to smother Carlos, Carlos got the upper hand grappling at him and flipped James off the bed. "Ah!" James yelled, "Not cool Carlos, I could have broken an arm or a nail or something!" Carlos scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "sorry Jamie."

"Now you have to go camping with me!" James accused, Carlos gaped "fine!" he crossed his arms and burrowed back under the covers "but not now, you are exhausting." James moved along the bed, hidden for all but the top of his hair, moving like the shark from jaws- he pounced on the bed in a distinctly un-shark like manner.

"Let's do it this weekend," James told him, Carlos just batted him away, "fine whatever." James grinned victoriously, pulling back the covers and slipping under the sheets. "We need to learn how to catch things," he babbled, "Kendall knows how to catch things and we'll look stupid if we don't know how." Carlos put his hand over his mouth, "why do we care if Kendall thinks we're stupid?"

"Because Hortense listens to Kendall and then he'll think we're stupid, and Hortense is smart so if he thinks it, it must be true, right?" James batted Carlos hand and turned off the light. "Hortense doesn't think we're stupid, he says were underachievers," Carlos told him sleepily, "oh and I can't camp all weekend Hortense is coming over on Sunday."

"What" James cried shrilly as if he hadn't already known, but it was too late, Carlos was unconscious and there was not much anyone could do to wake him up. "This is stupid" James muttered to himself, he pictured Hortense- who was probably sleeping or studying or something. 'I hate you' he told the imaginary Hortense, who looked appropriately devastated 'okay not really- I immensely dislike you.'

Hortense's face mocked him, and James frowned he couldn't even be mad at him even in his head. Just seeing Hortense's stupid face made him want to take back every nasty thought he had about him- after all, despite what anyone thought he had know Hortense the longest. He was James' friend not Kendall's, and he knew that's why he was getting worked up because Carlos was James' friend to and if he and Hortense became friends he became 'Hortense and Carlos' friend.'

And that would mean Kendall would have to be his friend. James made a face- nobody wanted that.

He stared at Carlos' sleeping form, silently hoping Carlos didn't remember that conversation in the morning.

If only because; he really didn't want to go camping.

************-_BTR_-***************

On Sunday Hortense arrived at the Garcia household before Carlos did, he sat on the steps for a little bit until Teresita (Carlos' thirteen year old sister) almost ran him over.

"Hortense… what are you doing?" she asked kindly (she was the only one of Carlos' siblings who could be categorised as nice- even if she did tend to spazz out like a crazy person in the company of James.) "I'm sitting… I supposed to work on a project with Carlos but he's not here yet." Teresita rolled her eyes "classic Carlos" he nodded and grinned, "well come in then" she pulled him up by the hand and dragged him inside.

She had a bunch of stuff set out in the kitchen, "Momma's out and I'm making lunch," she told him proudly. He sat down in a stool, resisting the eagre to swing around on the stool and watch her pull out ingredients. "What are you making?" he asked politely "I'm making a meat pie," she told him proudly and then amended "well I guess I'm making two meat pies now!"

He flushed "you don't have to-" She cut him off, "of course I do!" she laid out the puff pastry, "will you help?" Hortense almost tripped over trying to get up, "of course!" he went to the sink and began scrubbing his hands and Teresita giggled at his enthusiasm. She chucked him an apron, it was frilly and she was sort of impressed when he didn't complain about it or the frilly-less-ness of her own apron.

"So I've already got the meat- leftovers from spaghetti last night" she told him, showing him the bowl of mince. She was cutting the pastry and putting it into the pie maker, "can you cut the other one?" she asked he nodded at her and tried to measure how much he would need before grabbing a knife.

"So what project are you doing?" she asked curiously, "It's about an animal of our choice," he told her and she laughed, "and let me guess- you guys are doing the chimpanzee?" Hortense looked surprised, "yes, how did you know?" she waved her knife in a gesture and Hortense jumped out of the way, she was frighteningly like Carlos in respect to safety "he's been spouting facts about Chimpanzees all week. How did you keep his attention long enough to teach him that stuff?"

"He mostly learnt it himself, Carlos is pretty smart" he replied mostly honest… he had highlighted passages and pointed him in the right direction, but Carlos did the hard part of actually reading and absorbing the information. So that counted, right? She snorted, "Hortense you are a miracle worker- you should help him with his homework all the time."

"Maybe" he replied, hanging out with Carlos was sort of fun, "oh!" she said excitedly, "you totally should! Chimpanzees aren't the only thing he's been talking about all week," she told him in a highly confidential manner, "what?" he asked confused, "you, stupid, he's been talking about you" Hortense went red again, "why?" she rolled his eyes, taking the pastry from his hands and fitting it in perfectly in the pie maker.

"Because he likes you, he feels like that he knows you now- not like before when you were like James friend but not really his." Hortense's eyes widened, "he thought that?" she nodded seriously, "so you two should totally hang more, I'm sure if nothing else, it'll improve his grade, I'm surprised Papi hasn't hit you up for that."

She let him spoon the meat in and then they watched as they began to cook, "thanks for your help Hortense" she told him sincerely, with the same silly grin Carlos had. "No problem Teresita, it was fun" she looked fleetingly at the pies cooking and turned back to him, "these will be a minuet, do you want me to get the laptop for you so you can start typing?" he nodded gratefully, he had no idea the Garcia family had a laptop! Cool!

She shot off, returning a few minuets later victorious holding the laptop under her arms, her older brother Vince trailing after her angrily. "I was using that!" he complained, "I have to destroy the orcs!" she shot him a look, "well **I** need it!" she countered, he grabbed her arm roughly, "too bad!"

The pie maker beeped and Hortense opened it and carefully took the pies out, both siblings turned to look at him. "Um hi? Carlos' friend?" Vince said unsurely "Hortense" Teresita supplied, "right um- Hortense, what are you doing here?" he shrugged embarrassed, "waiting for Carlos- and um hanging out with Teresita, I guess" Vince shot his sister a look "nobody should be a cougar at 13 Tere" she flushed darkly, "I'm not!"

"Um- I asked her for the computer, I didn't realise you were using it, I was going to start typing up Carlos and my assignment" Vince blinked hard. He shoved his sister snatching the computer from her hand, "no problem Hor-ten-e-sense" he said setting it down on the bench; "Hortense" Teresita hissed the correction. Hortense grinned, "thank you Vince, I really appreciate it" the older boy beamed, "you're a lot nicer than Carlos' other friends" he muttered something darkly about James, "why don't I see you around much?"

Hortense shrugged helplessly, "you should see him anyway Vince" Teresita told him snottily, accepting the pie Hortense had put on a plate for her "he lives just down the street, he's the Mitchell's son." Vince's eyes widened, "Mr Mitchell's your dad?" he asked in half awe, half fear. His dad had sort of a reputation for being 'terrifying' to the neighbourhood kids, which is why nobody ever trick or treated or sold Girl Scout cookies to his house. Even though Mr Mitchell was deployed most of the year, the mere memory kept them away.

Vice rubbed his head "You guys made pies?" he asked curiously, eyes snapping to Teresita's plate, she guarded it closely, "yes- but none for you!" Hortense offered the boy he plate "you can have mine." Vince stretched out his hand and Teresita smacked it away, "not on your life!" he glared, "he offered!" he whined but went to the fridge to fine an alternative anyway.

"I think there is enough for a third, I could make you one" Hortense offered.

************-_BTR_-***************

When Carlos arrived home, dirty and sweaty from Camping in James' backyard and their various attempts of trying to catch squirrels he was treated to an odd sight.

Vince, Teresita and Hortense were sitting at the table laughing and eating pie. Vince and Teresita didn't even like to spend time with him, let alone his friends, but there they were eating pie and being social with Hortense.

"You **are** a wizard" he accused Hortense, the boy's head snapped up, "Carlos! Your back!" Carlos glared, "not another word wizard!" his siblings laughed at his antics, completely used to Carlos' flying leaps of logic, Hortense however looked confused. "You think" he began slowly "that **I**… am a wizard" Carlos nodded and his lip wavered, "you are aren't you?"

Hortense shrugged, and then shook his head "you helped me understand school, and now Tere and Vince are being nice to you- only a wizard could do that." Vince scowled at Carlos, "or maybe" he glared at him, "he made me a pie and didn't paint my room pink when I was at soccer practice like you and your other friends!" Carlos chuckled at the memory which prompted Vince tackled the smaller boy to the ground, "uncle! UNCLE!" Carlos screamed.

He pulled himself back up, "you didn't make me a pie" he sulked, "no- but mum did give me money so we could get ice cream." Carlos perked up, "after we finish typing this up" Carlos sank into a chair and whined, "whhhhyyyy?"

"We'll never get the computer, Vince doesn't share" he said finally, Hortense pointed to the laptop on the bench "I already have it" Carlos' eyes narrowed "WIZARD!"

************-_BTR_-***************

Typing out the assignment actually took no time at all (Carlos was an incredibly competent typer) and Vince even offered to drop them down at Hal's. He stayed for a few minuets to awkwardly try to flirt with Dorothy (who was once again behind the counter.) He eventually became so red he stuttered out excuses of hanging out with friends. He patted Hortense on the head and gave Carlos a warning look, "do not" he told him slowly, "Do anything… Carlos-ish."

Carlos gave his older brother a large dopey smile "I make no promises," which prompted Hortense to break out into a hysterical laugh; Vince rolled his eyes and leave.

Carlos skips up to the counter, "hurry up, Hortense!" he whines as Hortense trails behind, "hi guys!" Dorothy says brightly, they both waved at her. "hiya" Carlos told him brightly, "so what do you want today?" Hortense looked at his options, "can I have rainbow?" he asked quietly, "Dude, You had that last time!" Hortense crossed his arms "so?"

"It's alright little man, stick with what you know" Dorothy grinned brightly at him, "see" he told Carlos smugly. Carlos watched Dorothy stack his wafer cone high and bit his lip. "Rainbow is my favourite…" he said forlornly "so get it then."

Carlos shook his head; "getting the same thing twice in a row is stupid," Hortense crossed his arms. "Carlos, do you think I'm stupid?" Carlos shook his head violently, "of course not!" Hortense laughed, "so believe me when I say, it's not stupid to get rainbow twice."

Carlos grinned "okay!" he agreed quickly "I'll get a rainbow one too!" he looked up at Dorothy expectantly who handed Hortense his ice cream and went about making his. "There" she said, handing him the two scoop, and took the money Hortense gave her. "Wanna go to the park?" he asked Hortense turning to face him getting ice cream on his nose.

"Sure" he replied, wiping the ice cream off his friends face with his sleeve. Carlos grabbed Hortense's arm and pulled him along, "let's go to the skate park" Hortense rolled his eyes. "We don't have our skates," Carlos shook his head, "that's not positive thinking!"

"Positive thinking won't make our skates appear," he told him, ruffling Carlos' hair "how about we go to the regular park and climb a tree." Carlos smiled at him, "Yeah! I'm a way better climber than you" he gloated and Hortense raised his eyebrow, "I wouldn't count on that!"

The park was close enough to walk to; it was about halfway the distance between their houses and 'Hal's.' Carlos liked to jump onto the road and weave between the dotted white lines, even though Hortense was worried about cars. There were never any cars on a Sunday; the whole town was almost like at a standstill.

"Be careful Carlos" Hortense called and of course he didn't listen, he was now walking on the white lines, jumping over the places where the line ended to where another on started. "How could walking on lines be dangerous, what's the point of having a brain the size of Wisconsin if you're not going to use it!" Hortense darted out grabbing his friend's hand and dragging him to the sidewalk, "I am using my brain!"

"Besides" he slung an arm over his shoulder, similar to Kendall would to him- no means of escape, "I'm kind of offended." Carlos snickered, "how so?" Hortense shrugged, "my brain is way more awesome than Wisconsin, I'm deeply insulted you would even make a comparison." He grinned lightly, pulling him along, "I don't even like cheese!"

"The Packers are okay I guess…" he amended, Carlos looked at him deeply horrified, "The Packers? You're a football fan?" Hortense's eyes went wide and he raised his hands in defence "no way, I-" Carlos stepped away from him, scrubbing his arm, "and I touched you! I knew there was something wrong with you!" his was almost in tears from laughter and took off running.

"Come back!" Hortense screamed chasing after him, "don't you accuse me of such things and run away!"

Hortense caught up with Carlos at the park, his ice cream had mostly dribbled away to nothing, and he licked his hand clean. He looked around for a water fountain to clean of the residue and saw his friends legs snatch out of view up a tree. "Of course" he grumbled, sauntering over to the old oak. "Gee- I wonder where Carlos could be?" he called loudly, pretending he couldn't hear the childish giggling above him.

"I guess he went home," he said loudly, sighing loudly then something suddenly dropped from the tree. Something cold and wet splattered down his cheek and down the front of his shirt. "Opps" a small voice said from the tree, Hortense raised a hand to his cheek, rainbow coloured ice cream staining his hand. He looked up and glared.

"CARLOS GARCIA! YOU GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE SO I CAN WRING YOUR NECK!"

"Tempting" the voice called, "but I'm going to have to decline." Hortense rubbed his face free of the sticky substance "I'm not joking Carlos," he hissed angrily. He spoted the boy hugging a tree branch high above "neither am I, I don't want to die" Carlos complained. Hortense shucked off his backpack and opened it, pulling out a paperback book and throwing it at him.

"HEY! That could have hit me!" Hortense rolled his eyes digging for another book, "that was the idea genius" Carlos gripped the tree harder. "DON'T!" he screeched, Hortense threw the book and this one hit and Carlos shook. "DON'T! I'm serious" he actually sobbed, Hortense's hand stilled, "…Carlos?" he called softly, "Carlos, I- I didn't mean it!"

"I-I" Carlos sobbed harder, "I c-can't get down" Hortense chucked his bag on the ground, "stay where you are Carlitos, I'll be right up." Carlos hadn't been joking about him being the better climber, it took several attempts before Hortense could get the right footing to climb the tree, and even then he still needed to cross halfway out to the branch.

Hortense clung to the tree trunk, "Carlos" he said softly, trying not to spook the smaller boy to no use as Carlos' head shot up, "y-you came?" Hortense nodded extending his hand, "take my hand would you?" Carlos shot off the branch, gripping his hand tightly until he was close enough to hug him. "I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'mSOsorry" he muttered wetly into Hortense's shoulder.

"It's okay Carlitos, I'm not mad anymore" he said soothingly, and truly he wasn't. "I need to let go so we can climb down," Carlos nodded hesitantly and let go slowly. Hortense went down first and Carlos followed quickly behind once they were on the ground Carlos tackled him again. "I'm so sorry, I know you're afraid of heights!"

Hortense took in a sharp breath, that's right, he was. He hadn't even though about it when Carlos had been hyperventilating and sobbing to think that, that was usually him. He patted Carlos hair softly, "I think- I'm over that Carlos" Carlos grinned up at him and Hortense wiped away for him with his sleeve.

"I think you might be my best friend Hortense," he told him seriously, "of course I am Carlos," Hortense laughed. "Yeah- but I think I really mean it now, I think you and I are going to be friends forever."

Hortense let go of the hug in favour of slinging his arm around Carlos' should, "me too Carlos, me too." He pushed the smaller boy forwards; "come on I'll race you to the swings."

Carlos face broke out in a grin, "you're on!"

************-_BTR_-***************

It was on Tuesday after hockey practice they all hung out at Carlos' place. I was probably the best place for it because James had a weird thing about Kendall coming over his house (after Kendall had smashed his mirror when he gotten angry at him and James was **still** not over it.) Kendall and Hortense's mums were working so they're places were out, but Carlos' house always had people in it. And a TV.

They were all in the games room, furniture pushed back, Kendall and Hortense sprawled on the couch and Carlos and James on the floor. They were playing a video game by working in teams and James and Kendall were versing so it was getting intense. Hortense cheered Kendall on and Carlos crawled up to the couch leaning against the couch. Hortense patted his head fondly and Carlos grinned up at him.

"Can you get me a drink Hortie?" Hortense grinned and looked over at the two involved boys, "I'll be back in a minuet." Kendall grabbed his leg when he tried to stand, eyes never leaving the screen, "no you don't" he pushed Hortense down. Hortense tried to get up again, "don't be stupid Kendall, I need to get up," Kendall shook his head, "no Carlos can get up, I need my cheerleader!" he whined.

"You're pathetic" he shook the blonde off, "cheerleader?" James jeered as Hortense left the room, "where do you keep your pom poms Hortie?" Hortense rolled his eyes and walked into the kitchen where Teresita was sitting at the table, her math homework spread out on it. "Hi Teresita" he said smiling, moving to the fridge the lemonade.

She looked up startled, and then smiled, "hey Hortie" Hortense rolled his eyes, "oh no, is everyone calling me that now?" she grinned wider, leaning back in her chair stretching, "afraid so." She snickered at the look on his face, "don't worry Hortie, it's a term of endearment" she promised him. "Not really less manly than Hortense right?" Hortense flushed, "yes well- not many people know it's a girl name seeing as it's so old." She giggled uncontrollably at him.

"Mum thought she was having a girl" he said depressed, "it's okay" she smiled "it'll be our little secret then" she winked at him. He pored the drinks and looked at her work, "you just starting your homework now?" he was genuinely surprised, Teresita seemed to be the only studious one in the family.

"Afraid so" she sighed and pointed to a gym bag on the floor, "I had cheerleading practice" Hortense's eyes took in the pom poms on the floor. "Ah Teresita- can I ask a strange question" he said unsurely, "go ahead" she encouraged.

"Can I borrow those?"

The look on his friend's faces when he back flipped into the room with pom poms was well worth the teasing he would get for it later.

************-_BTR_-***************

James' nanny ended up taking him and Kendall home after the post practice video game off. Kendall was lying over three seats in the back, feet propped on James lap. "Tired?" James teased, Kendall grinned toothily, "yeah, from kicking your but at hockey **and** super smash bros."

"Kind of an achievement seeing Hortense was on your team" James jokes, "you can't mean Hockey, cause you know he kind of kicks your butt" Kendall snipes. "First of all, no he doesn't and second of all I meant video games, duh" Kendall grins fondly, "yeah he is kind of pathetic, but nobody's prefect." James pinches Kendall's leg, "and you though Hortense was?"

"Nah, but you have to admit he's usually pretty good at everything" Kendall tells him, "after hours of practice maybe, look I've known him since he was six and that's why he studies, not a lot comes naturally." James winces, "especially piano" James had piano practice right after Hortense and it always took him several tries to get anything down, and he was not good at improvising.

"Nah I don't think that's it" Kendall said sitting up, "oh and you would know" James sighs, "Yeah I would know, he is my best friend." James pushes Kendall off him completely, "it's kind of weird you know, he used to be my best friend." Kendall frowns, he didn't like to think not too long ago (two years) before he had met either of them James and Hortense had been best friends.

"Not that it really matters" James smirks, "looks like he's Carlos' best friend now." Kendall splutters "Nuh uh, I'm still his best friend- he cheered me with pom poms" he said smugly, "and you don't think it means something that Carlos' sister knows Hortense well enough to lend him pom poms?" James was mostly just trying to stir Kendall, but nothing he said was strictly untrue.

"I don't think it's that serious," Kendall said confidently, he'd sort of had a good conversation with Hortense and no way he liked Carlos more than him. "Care to make a bet?" James challenged, Kendall never backed down from a bet "sure- how do I prove it?"

"Up for a little reconnaissance?" James asked as the car pulled up in Kendall's driveway, "reconniwhat?" Kendall asked confused, "stalking" James clarified. "Stalking sounds wrong… and kinda creepy" Kendall told him hesitantly, "don't think of it as stalking" James told him getting out of the car and opening Kendall's door, "think it as… watching from a distance… without their knowledge or consent."

Kendall grins, "well that **does** sounds better," he looks momentarily guilty "and Hortense will never know?" James shakes his head "not if we do it right, besides we just need to see if it's true, and since you think it's not an issue, no harm no foul." Kendall scratched his head, "but what if it is an issue?"

"Sabotage" James told him grinning wildly, Kendall grinned back, "cool."

**As always, please review so I know what you liked and disliked.**


	3. Watch from a distance without consent

**Author's Note: this chapter is dedicated to the following reviewers: Logan Henderson Is Mine, Anonymous Skrtle, MyWonderLand209 and CheekyBrunette. A special mention to HalfJillHalfJack as she edited this even though she has pneumonia she is so very awesome. Okay in clarification on age they are 10 and this will at no point be a slash fic. Heads up on this chapter, which is 'Kendall and James', focused.**

Kendall has had a bad day; it's been really shit actually (not that he would ever say that out loud but it makes him feel a little better.) He sinks into the couch and crosses his arms. It's a Friday afternoon and he should be having fun, he wanted to go to the park with Hortense but he can't. His mother's working, and they officially don't have enough money for a babysitter to watch Katie. Kendall is a firm believer that the four year old could probably look after herself better than he could, but his mother had made that face at him. That desperate sad face that says she wishes Kendall was still being babysat than a babysitter and so he keeps his comments to himself.

He laid on his stomach and looked at Katie, who was holding a picture book and shoot him a look far to advanced for her age, like she was reading his mind. She understands more than he expects she should, and sometimes he catches her holding their family album with an almost resined expression.

"I still love you" he told her seriously, "if it seems like no one does… if it seems like dad doesn't, I don't want it to hurt cause… I'm great at loving people." He lifts her gently so they can sit on the couch together, "everyone says so," he spread his legs so that she can sit in between them.

He hugs her pressing his face into her hair, 'I'm supposed to be a grown up, I think when stuff like this happens it's what we're supposed to do.' He thinks depressingly to himself, he should want to grow up, if not for himself or his mother then at least for Katie.

Katie doesn't respond to any odd behaviour on his part (she rarely ever does) so he asks her, "growing up means not being selfish right?" it's stupid to ask a four year old, even if she behaves more like an adult than he does. "I don't have a lot, but I'd share it with you."

"I don't want to share with anyone else" she turns so she can see him out of the corner of her eye, "no" she says slowly, she's looking for the words (she loves language, so she understands that words should be chosen carefully.) "You share. James? Carlos?" she doesn't say Hortense's name only because it seems like a given, he smiles weakly, "not everything."

"Okay to want" and she reaches out for her book, like an example she holds it in his reach and he goes to take it from her. She tugs it out of his reach, "no. Mine, I want it" she pats him on the arm like everything is sorted and goes back to the floor to trace the letters like she understands what they mean.

He gapes at her, she says words like she knows what they mean, and sometimes he wonders if she does, since she's four everything is simple- and maybe it could be. "Just like that?" he murmurs, she's no longer listening after all she's not there to cater to any needs that aren't her own.

The phone rings and Kendall picks it up numbly, "Knight residence" he answers blandly. He never used to answer the phone that way until he rang James once and his nanny answered 'Diamond residence.' It sounded like something an adult might say (after all one had) and he kind of liked that.

"Hey Kendall" Carlos responds quietly over the phone. He hadn't talk to Carlos a whole lot lately; he used to love to- he was a lot of fun until the whole project thing soured every conversation they attempted. "Hello Carlos" he tried to sound upbeat and Carlos seemed to mimicked the tone. Carlos' tone however always sounded more genuine than Kendall's, he wondered how the other boy could switch his mood like a light switch.

"Have you started your math homework?" he asked brightly, Kendall nodded uselessly and then replied "yeah." He could practically see Carlos' smile, all wide and silly. "Do you think you could help me with question eight" Kendall's eyes flicked over to Katie, "I can't really leave the house… wait don't you live like two seconds from Hortense, go ask him."

Carlos sighed, "He's at piano practice remember?" Kendall hadn't, but now he did, Hortense and James' piano practice had been moved to Friday because their teacher was pulling back his hours or something. "He'll be home soon" Kendall told him weakly, Carlos knew things about Hortense that Kendall didn't remember, there was that sinking feeling again.

"Nah he has gymnastics till late 'cause he has that meet next week, ya'know at the beginning of the holidays." Kendall nodded emotionless and muttered "right."

"Anyway" Carlos said conspiratorially, "it's kind of embarrassing" Kendall perked up a little, "what is?" he could picture Carlos, biting his lip and tearing into his fingernails. "Hortense says I'm smart- he says it like he means it" his voice wavers, "nobody ever says that." Kendall thinks that must be true, and he wants to say it now, but it would mean nothing at the second. "Asking him for help…"

Carlos trails off and Kendall smiles a soft smile, "don't worry about it Carlos, everyone needs help. Why do you think Hortense asks so many questions in class?" Kendall has no idea if Hortense does that; they aren't in the same class this year or when they were eight. And last year… Kendall had acted up a lot; he hadn't paid much attention to anything that year.

"Yeah!" Carlos said cheerfully, Kendall warms and it's almost as good as if he didn't have to babysit, just by being himself Carlos had flipped his mood switch and he was all better. "So- question eight" Carlos asked cheerfully. "26" Kendall told him (it had taken Kendall half an hour to work around that question so the number had seared itself in his mind), Carlos cheered.

"That's sort of like cheating" Carlos told him a mixture between gleeful and guilty. "Sort of" Kendall responds, "but I wont tell if you don't" there's a moment of self-satisfied silence, "thanks Kendall." The words stay with him long after he hangs up the phone and sits back on the couch. Sometimes he forgot that talking to Carlos was one of the best things in the world.

It takes him an hour to realise since they aren't in the same class they might not have the same homework. Oh well.

************-_BTR_-***************

Piano practice had been cancelled; normally James would be cursing Mr Julius for wasting his afternoon. However he had seen the paramedics wheel him into the ambulance so he has a feeling it wasn't exactly his choice. Hortense has been worried, of course, but Mrs Julius (his wife and partner) promised it was only a break from tripping on a stool (she had called it a hairline fracture but James didn't see what hair had to do with his leg.)

James ended up just walking Hortense to the gym uptown; Hortense was going to be really early for his practice.

"Why do you still do gymnastics?" James asked curiously, he was bored and hated walking but he wasn't set to see his nanny for like another hour. He was all pent up from not getting to play the piano, he didn't like it all that much, but he went early and watched Hortense play (it annoyed Hortense a lot because he wasn't as naturally talented at it like James was.) After, they went and got chips from the vending machine and waited for Clara -James' nanny- to pick them up.

But today Hortense had extra practice for gymnastics, which James' dad said was stupid so James wasn't aloud to do it anymore. James had told Hortense that it was stupid, but Hortense liked to do it anyway for some reason. Hortense just shrugged at his question though, it was kind of infuriating.

"Coach says I'm getting sort of good, and I like being good at something that's not school." James frowned. "You're- you're good at hockey" James tells him, Hortense rolls his eyes, "no you're good at hockey, I'm alright but if it wasn't for you and the guys I totally would have quit ages ago." James gapes at him, "don't tell Kendall" Hortense begs quickly, "I really do love hockey, I just don't think I'm… great, you know."

James sighs dramatically, "you always want to be great at everything straight away" James grins, complaining about Hortense was fun, it was kind of like reminding himself that Hortense was just a kid, just like him. "No" Hortense replies stubbornly, "Not right away, I just loose interest if I think I'm never going to be good at something." Hortense frowns harder "I'm not afraid to try."

James rose his hands defensively, skipping out in front of Hortense on the sidewalk and grabbed his hand. It was almost like being seven again, before they even knew Carlos and Kendall, that's what piano practice was about, Hockey was for the four of them and piano was for the two of them.

"You try harder than anyone I know Hortie" he told him sincerely, slinging his arm companionably around his friend's shoulder "you're a try hard!" he ducked out of the way and narrowly missed Hortense's flying hand, James let out a hysterical laugh and ran forward "I mean that in the best possible way."

Hortense chased behind him and all to soon they were at the gym. James got it a little better know, the gymnastics thing, Hockey was for the four of them and piano was for James and whatever he did with Kendall after school was for them. But gymnastics… gymnastics was just for Hortense.

"I want to watch" James said impulsively, Hortense looked surprised "but… you think gymnastics is stupid." James grinned up at the sky and then looked to his friend, "I think I get it now, so now… it's kind of beautiful." Hortense gave him a giant smile and tugged him by the hand, "then you're gonna love this, there are lotsa girls who train here."

He was right, lots and lots of pretty girls, he sighed happily. James was quietly resigned to the fact he was probably the only one who liked girls at the moment, but he was sure the others would come around- if for no other reason Kendall would be super competitive about dating. Hortense got changed into his 'man-i-tard' or whatever it was and waved James over.

"There's a spectator section," he pointed to the far out of the way section with seats, high off the ground. "Nah" he shook his head, "I still want to talk" Hortense shrugged- it was against the rules to loiter, but he doubted anyone would dob him in, judging by the giggling girls that with shoot him embarrassed glances every few minuets.

Hortense stretched and James sat out of the way on the floor, he looked around at the other gymnasts and waited for Hortense to get to the less boring bits.

Hortense would never brag that he was sort of awesome at the poll-vault thing- though Kendall sometimes went on and on about it like a proud parent when Hortense was out of ear shot. James couldn't really blame the blonde, it was kind of impressive to see Hortense be strong and focused and centred. He was completely on his own, with no Kendall to turn to, or Carlos to joke with or James to smile confidently at him.

He was doing this on his own. And doing it really well.

James smiled, because what else could he do?

************-_BTR_-***************

Kendall and James met up on Saturday at James' house. James had warned Carlos that he and Kendall were doing 'male bonding' at his house and to not bother coming over. Carlos looked at him strangely and walked away muttering about male bonding only happening with males.

Kendall didn't have to tell Hortense anything; Hortense was spending the day at the gym so he could have the day off on Sunday. Hortense was nervous about the meet, and Kendall couldn't wait to go and cheer him on (if only because it would mortify him.)

James showed Kendall to the living room, it was huge and spacious. Kendall had never really grasped the economic difference between him and James more than when it was slapping him in the face in the form of a giant plasma screen. Kendall sat on the floor, back to the couch in his usual tactical manner of being able to always see the door (there were four so it was a minor challenge.)

James spread out comfortably on the couch, and Kendall mused over whether James merely put on that level of comfort when crammed on Carlos' shoddy couch or in Kendall's small family room.

"So I've been thinking," Kendall tells James, "Er, good for you" he responds encouragingly. "What am I Carlos? I was pausing for effect moron, your supposed to ask me what I was thinking" Kendall shook his head, "this is why I hang out with Hortense over you." James gave him a cranky look, and laid out flat on the couch "then why don't you?" Kendall scratches his head, "don't I what?"

"Talk to him?" Kendall gave a very put out sigh, he tugged lightly at James hair, he slapped his hand hard in response. "You know, its considered wise to talk about stalking techniques with the stalkee" James' mouth quirked. "And you're wise?" Kendall glared, "of course I am, now quit interrupting."

James sat up, "so you've warmed up to the idea?" Kendall shrugs "it's stupid and irresponsible and" Kendall breathes huffily "and I totally have too." Kendall confirms firmly, James smiles lightly, "you know I like hanging out with Hortense" James was treading lightly, it wasn't like it was news, James still sometimes referred to Hortense as his best friend- but he was talking to Kendall, so treading lightly was a necessary precaution. "So?" Kendall asks sharply, James blushes.

"You like hanging out with Carlos right? I mean you guys are the ones who love that Action-man show" Kendall grins sillily. "Action man is awesome" James shakes his head, he'd always preferred the teenage mutant ninja turtles (which was why he always insisted that bandanas were like the coolest things ever!) "My point was, I don't mind you hanging out with Carlos and I assume you don't mind me hanging with Hortense."

"I mind a little" Kendall admits embarrassed, "not enough to really count" he amends at the sight of James face. "So why do we mind when they hang out without us?" James voiced shakily, the question was plaguing- he knew his answer. Carlos and Hortense were his two closest friends and he hated being left out… but what was Kendall's answer?

Kendall stared blankly. "I- you know I'm not sure, I-I guesses I don't like sharing Hortense, but I'm not sure what it is about Carlos…" James stroked his chin, imagining it would make him appear thoughtful (that was close enough to being actually thoughtful right?) "Is it because you took him from me? I mean I'm not really a threat…"

"I didn't take him from you" Kendall snapped angrily, James rolled his eyes "it's true, you met Carlos and dumped him- we ended up hanging out by default." It was sort of true, when James and Carlos got close… Hortense and James got less close. "He was kind of lost" Kendall muttered absently, hands waving wildly "I guess that's why were good friends- he likes having someone telling him what to do."

James shakes his head, "nah, he likes guidelines, he didn't exactly have a handbook to being a kid before you showed up… he just did whatever I did, he didn't really like or dislike things."

The door in the foyer opens and voices, not as quiet as they should be, make themselves known. Kendall hears a female voice giggle and James goes ridged, he clears his throat a little. "Hey Kendall" he says, his voice louder than necessary, the giggle cuts off abruptly "do you want to get something from the kitchen." James grabs his hand harshly and they bolt to the kitchen, Kendall can hear the faint sound of someone cursing and hitting their leg on the ottoman that Kendall had moved a little while ago.

James looks hostile, and Kendall shifts from foot to foot. James storms over to the fridge and opens it with unnecessary force "drink?" it's not really worded like a question but Kendall nods. James chucks a can of coke at him (it was times like this Kendall really wished he had more experience in being a goalie.) Kendall catches it with the tips of his fingers and then it slips from his hands and harmlessly onto the counter top.

"So what's the plan?" James asks after a moment, he takes a large gulp of water (he says soft drink is bad for his singing voice, which make's Kendall wonder why he would have it in his fridge then.) Kendall shrugs and thinks of what Hortense does when he's freaking out about his dad- test the waters or change topic.

"What was?" he starts James shakes his head, "I'm not talking to you about this" he says sharply, "you should" Kendall remarks hotly, "I- I talk to Hortense sometimes, not lately… but I will." And that's good enough for Kendall, it isn't really fair on Hortense who seems to be acting as the group's therapist but it's not like either of them could go to Carlos with stuff like this.

"So how do you stalk someone?" Kendall asks, the conversation clearly over, James beams at him "I have a few ideas." Kendall leans on the counter, "we'll need code-names, walkie-talkies and tree hats!" Kendall grinned wildly "what's a tree hat?" James shrugged "I dunno yet, but it'll be awesome!"

Kendall opened his can of coke and it sprayed everywhere, James was laughing hysterically until Kendall pointed out the spray had gotten in his hair…

************-_BTR_-***************

James insisted Kendall swung by Hortense's house in the afternoon, after his day with James (now way more tolerable as they did come up with the totally awesome tree hat.) He needed to set some groundwork in case something was happening between Hortense and Carlos (not technically sabotage- more like planting seeds of doubt, which was really more like gardening.)

When he arrived Hortense hadn't even changed out of his gym gear, he had been sleeping on the couch so Kendall just let himself in (under the doormat was not a safe place for the spare key.) He looked down at the smaller boy, he looked pretty wiped out but that didn't stop Kendall poking him in the face.

"Wake up sleeping beauty" Kendall sang, "ergh" Hortense responded eyes still closed, "are you trying to sing me awake Kendall, you know that doesn't work backwards, and your not even trying to sing it backwards!" Kendall sat on the boy's stomach "Okay Hortie, you do better then" Hortense shifted, flipping Kendall off him and turned over like he was sleeping again.

"Hooorrrtttiiiieee" Kendall whined, "ytuaeb gnipeels pu ekaw" Hortense sang quietly, and then sat up, "okay now I feel awake." Kendall gaped at him, "what the hell!" Hortense shot him a warning look, "that word is for people who want to go there Kendall" he was being haughty, or just sleep deprived. "Well **hell**" Kendall exclaimed, "I'd sure hate to go to **hell**, but since when in the **hell** did you start getting religious" Kendall grinned and then added an extra "**hell**" for fun sake.

Hortense crossed his arms, "I'm not, but Mrs Garcia says that it's better to be safe than sorry, and you can't argue with that logic." Kendall frowned, "sure I can, in fact I am, there is no way in **hell**" Hortense winced "that it exists, isn't that more logical when there isn't any proof."

Hortense raised his eyebrow, "okay if there isn't then it was all for nothing, but if it's true, well then I'd be out of luck- it's called being precautious." Kendall rolled his eyes and then perked up, "precautious you say?" Hortense looked wary and nodded, "what kind of precautions would you take to save a life?" Hortense's eyes widened.

Kendall later explained the life he needed to save was Princess Peach's, his virtual life in future races- because frankly, Hortense sucked eggs at video games. Hortense had complained loudly about being Princess Peach but he always did (the players went as following; Carlos- Mario, James- Lugi, Hortense- Peach and Kendall- Bowser.)

Hortense and Kendall sat side by side, Hortense held the controller but it was Kendall who was basically playing the game, shouting instructions and jumbling his hands into the fray to correct things. "I'm never going to learn if you don't take off the training wheels Kendall," Hortense smirked; he still didn't understand why they needed to 'train' in video gaming anyway.

Kendall glared at him, hitting the pause button removing his hands from the controller. "You know Hortense, I don't think you're taking this seriously," Hortense giggled and threw the controlled down, "well then- you'd be right." Kendall tackled Hortense and pinned him on the couch, "I thought you'd like studying," he said crankily. "I do" Hortense told him earnestly, "but this is not studying."

Kendall gave up and resorted to tickling, an underhandedly trick since Hortense was especially ticklish. Hortense started thrashing pretty much immediately and Kendall let up for a second, "say you need my help." The terms were clear but Hortense didn't want to give in, "never!" he cried, Kendall's hands stilled and he stood up leaving Hortense on the couch.

"No" he said firmly, "say you need my help," Hortense rolled his eyes, and sat up. "Of course I need your help" Kendall's face softened, "after all I'm rubbish at video games." Kendall snorted and threw a throw pillow at him.

"You're acting weird" Hortense told him later; he had finally beaten Kendall at a racing game and was feeling particularly good. Kendall flopped lazily on the floor, "am I?" Hortense waved his hands uselessly "well weirder than usual" he adds an after thought. Kendall snorts, "gee thanks."

"Don't take it personal dude" Hortense sighed, pinching one of Kendall's cheeks so Kendall would flail and screech at him. "How do I not take it personal?" Kendall asked rubbing his cheek bitterly, Hortense shrugged, "I don't know… just don't, cause you know I don't mean it like that" he patted his head softly, "I never do."

Kendall's mouth formed a hard line, "it's hard to tell sometimes Hort, and sometimes it's like you talk down to people" 'hardly ever, never on purpose,' he adds in his head. Hortense's face slackens and Kendall wants to take it back, but he promised James he would see this through. Kendall never backs down from a challenge.

"I don't feel that way" he adds quickly, it's off script but he feels it's important to make that clear- it is the most important part. "But kids in class, **some** people don't like when you help them with homework- it makes them feel stupid." Hortense looks like he's about to cry and his shoulders waver in a painful way, Kendall bites his lip, he hoped this was for the best.

And as long as Hortense doesn't realise what he's doing, nobody gets hurt in the long run. Kendall flings his arms around the smaller boy, he's basically lighting the script on fire now but he can't watch is friend cry. "Oh Hortie, I didn't mean it like that" even if he totally did, "I'm sorry I brought it up" and that was something true, and so the words felt flat and hard in his mouth.

"It's fine Kendall" Hortense told him sincerely through a watery smile, he wiped his face embarrassed. "I like that you can tell me the truth" there is a heavy pause, felt on both sides and Hortense stretches out.

"You're my best friend" Kendall tells him impulsively, Hortense grins and grabs his hand for a moment, squeezing lightly. "And you're mine, after all who else would put up with you?"

Who else indeed.

************-_BTR_-***************

Carlos spent the beginning of Sunday wandering aimlessly, the project was finished and everything. He was so proud, so there was no reason to bug Hortense right? He should call James or maybe Kendall (who seemed to finally not be in a unending bad mood with him.) But in the morning Vince had looked at him weirdly and asked him where Hortense was and he found himself itching and aimless. That wasn't like him at all.

He had circled the block several times before he gave in and knocked on the door, Hortense's mother's car was gone, but that didn't mean anything. He hopped off his skate board and knocked on the door (it was still weird to knock rather than throw rocks at his window.) Hortense answered immediately and grinned widely, "I thought you'd never get here!"

Carlos launched himself at the other boy knocking them over, Carlos buried his nose into Hortense's freshly pressed, and surprisingly comfortable sweater vest. "I missed you," he muttered and Hortense laughed, "Carlos I see you all the time!" Carlos just hugged harder "I still missed you- that's not weird right?" Hortense shook his head fondly, "no- not at all."

He nudged Carlos and the boy took the hit and got up off him, sticking out his hand to him. "Come home with me?" he asked, Hortense's house was empty (as usual) and he was sure at the very least Vince and Teresita would be happy to see Hortense (which had to be good for Hortense's ego- Carlos wouldn't know, they didn't like him that much.) Hortense nodded and mumbled about locking up.

He grabbed his skates but didn't put them on, chances are later that day they would end up at Hal's and it would be nice if he didn't have to walk back over to his house to get them later.

Carlos smacked Hortense in the face "you're it" he screamed and ran off, Hortense stared dumbly for a moment and then grinned speeding after him.

Tag was prematurely ended when they reached the house and Mrs Garcia yelled at them to stop running inside the house. She then proceeded to force more food on Hortense, but by this time Hortense was sort of used to the Garcia family feeding them (he was beginning to go over to their house for dinner sometimes during the week, and he had never been so full in his life!)

Mr Garcia was home for once, and grinned a big Garcia grin when he caught sight of Hortense. He clasped him on the shoulder "still helping our boy with school work, Hortense, you might be a saint." Hortense blinked and then grinned, "yeah actually" Carlos gave him a betrayed look, "homework! There's only one week left of school!"

"And you haven't even started filling in your activities in you're science book have you?" Hortense said confidently, "science activities?" Carlos asked in a high voice and Hortense nodded smugly, "we have to hand them in tomorrow."

Carlos grabbed Hortense's hand, "we'llbeupinmyroompapi" he rushed, pulling Hortense along violently. "How did I not know about this?" Carlos whined, Hortense shrugged "I dunno, Mrs Cutner only mentioned it like a bazillion times."

************-_BTR_-***************

James and Kendall loitered stealthily outside Hortense's house that morning careful not to be seen. Kendall's mum was picking up extra days and wasn't home on Sundays now, but had been informed in advance about their plans (to go out… not the stalking part, Kendall thought his mum might not be to keen on that part.)

Kendall had dropped Katie off at Mrs McGilicutties (his mum's nice friend who promised to look after Katie) and met up with James. James had insisted they wear eye black and dress in co-ordinated spy wear (Kendall shot down the matching black outfits due to being inconspicuous but kind of like the eye black.)

They produced their tree hats (a black helmet with leaves stuck on, version 1.0) and hid out in the tree in Hortense's front yard. James brought a pair of binoculars, which Kendall stole almost immediately. Kendall exclaimed excitedly when he caught sight of Hortense, James swiped at him to be quieter (not that Hortense heard, there was a house between them after all) and they settled in to watch.

It was boring at first; Hortense played video games (which would have been much more fun if they could go down and play, but that would defeat the purpose of stalking.) Then movement started outside the house, Carlos is skateboarding mindlessly up the street. "This is it" James hissed snatching the binoculars off of Kendall and focused in on Carlos.

Then Carlos passed Hortense's house. "What. The. Hell." Kendall frowned "don't say that!" James glared "he's getting away." He jumped smoothly from the tree, "James!" Kendall hissed, "Get back here!" James shook his head, "I have to see where he's going" Kendall glared, "you're going to get us caught" Kendall whines, "No I-"

Kendall leans down and grabs him by the shirt, "shit! SHIT! He's coming back!" Kendall pulls James up by his shirt and pulled him into the tree, "MY SHIRT" James cries "our cover!" Kendall hisses and puts his hand over the vain boy's mouth, James glares at Kendall and then bites his hand. "Ah! James!" James merely snatches back the binoculars and watched Carlos retreat down the street, "I think he's doing laps…"

Kendall waits until Carlos rounds the corner before shoving James out of the tree; James falls gracelessly and angrily into the dirt. "Mother-" Kendall grabs at James again, "he's coming back" pulling him up just in time. "Quit it" James sniped, trying in vain to brush the dirt off his clothes. "Shhhhhhh- he's coming this way!"

Carlos hovered outside Hortense's door for a few minuets before knocking, "chump move" Kendall whispers "there's a spare key hidden-" James hits Kendall "shut up, stuff is finally happening" Kendall glared, "I thought we didn't want that to happen?" James' face fell, "oh yeah."

Hortense greeted Carlos brightly and Carlos tackled hugged him, both spies winced at the action. "That's got to hurt" James muttered thinking of Carlos' 'surprise hugs' and Kendall just scowls darkly. Carlos helps Hortense up and the door slams. "To the window!" Kendall hisses jumping down the tree, James climbs down more gingerly and they peer through the window, Carlos is lolling in the living room.

"What is he doing?" James asked curiously, Carlos was looking at the walls and then saved Hortense's game and turned it off. Hortense ran back into the room with his skates and they could here the faint "let's go" through the window. The boys shared a look and then raced to the other side of the house so they couldn't be seen.

Kendall listened for the tell tale sounds of Hortense locking the door, and could see the edge of Carlos in his view, he leans out of his view and screams "TAG you're it!" and the noises of the two become more distant. Kendall sticks his head out and watches two dark haired boys racing like maniacs towards Carlos house. Hortense was gaining on Carlos and grabbed him by the arm, then dodged away from him.

When they entered the house Kendall stepped out into the open, "what now… I think we can scale his neighbour's house to see into Carlos' bedroom- but what if they go somewhere else?" James wasn't paying attention, he was wearing a look that seemed somewhere between his usual devious face and Kendall's thoughtful planning face. "I have an idea… you know where Hortense's spare key is right?"

James didn't waste time riffling through Hortense's room and Kendall stood uneasily in the doorway, "I don't know about this James." James threw some of Hortense's clothes and Kendall dodged into the room to catch them, "don't be such a chicken Kendall, he'll never notice" Kendall snorted and sat on the bed carefully folding the clothes again. "This is Hortense we're talking about, he **always** notices."

"No **Carlos** always notices when someone goes through his stuff, because his mum does it all the time," James sorts through some DVDs "Mrs Mitchell doesn't do that, so Hortense will assume any mess made was his mess." Kendall put the clothes back in the closet "your logic is flawed" James rolled his eyes, "shut up and help me."

"What are we looking for?" Kendall asked curiously, righting a precarious stack of books that looked about to tip over. "For his diary" James told him shuffling through papers, Kendall nearly fell over "HIS WHAT!" he screeched, he grabbed James by the arm "James- Hortense doesn't have a diary!"

"Fine Journal or whatever" James rolled his eyes, Kendall shook his head, "Hortense hates committing feelings to paper, and he doesn't even like giving thank you cards or birthday cards!" James scrunched up his nose, "but last year I gave him a journal for his birthday and he promised he'd use it." Kendall shrugged "maybe he uses it to work out equations or whatever else he writes in his notebooks."

Kendall went to the desk, "that would be mean" he shifted a few papers and picked up a beautiful leather-bound book with his friend's name engraved on the cover. James let out a cheer and made a grab for it, Kendall kept it out of reach "if there's anything personal in here, I'll read it" James made another grab for it.

Kendall opened the first page to find a list of bus numbers, James peered over Kendall's shoulder "lame, these are the bus numbers to the gym… Oh look this one takes you to my house!" Kendall flicked a few pages until he spotted his name- it looked like a brainstorm with Kendall's name in the centre.

'The leader' he read with several lines coming off it with words like; '**possessive**,' '**well meaning**' and Kendall's favourite '**usually right**.' Under another sub-heading there is a section about his family and a section for his relationship with each friend. "What is this?" James asked in confusion and awe, "I think" Kendall starts lightly, "Hortense is trying to study me like he does in class, break me down in to easy to understand pieces."

There's a section on Kendall's dad and he flips the page, he doesn't want to keep reading what his friend thinks about him- it's too private and if he had wanted him to know, he would have told him. Kendall's character sheet went on for pages until a new name stuck out.

James.

Kendall kept flicking pages over James' outrage, "we're here for information about Carlos not you James" James whines "but I wanna knnnoooowwww."

Carlos' page is smaller (make sense, they aren't as close) but has a lot of new writing on it, things about his family, about the way he studies, what kind of food he likes and what were good ideas for his birthday present. "A new helmet" James mumbles, "I am so stealing that idea!" Kendall flips the page and it reminds him a little of a dictionary, there were a bunch of words, definitions and at the top of the page it read; Carlosisms.

Kendall slammed the journal shut, "you're right James" he says shakily, "this is his diary." James sighs, "I knew you wouldn't be cool with this" Kendall shakes his head firmly and put it back where he found it, "we can still scale the house okay? Just… let me clean up first" Kendall tells him as James lies down on the bed until he's done.

************-_BTR_-***************

Carlos throws the science book down, "DONE! Finally!" Hortense grins at him wildly, "That's great Carlos! I knew you could do it!" Carlos' smile slackened a little, "hey Hortense" he says quieter, "I don't- don't want you to think I only want you around to help me with my homework…"

Hortense's smile wavers "I don't" he waves his hand "I was more worried you'd be annoyed with me about it, I don't want you to think I'm some know-it-all." Carlos laughed, "but you are a know it all!" Hortense face fell, "I mean," Carlos reeled, "you- like know everything… it was meant to be a compliment" he struggled. "I mean you're so much smarter than me sometimes I feel-"

Hortense winced "stupid?" Carlos eyes widened, "I don't want you to feel that way Carlos! You're so smart, you just learn a different way- and I don't think that's bad."

Outside Kendall and James sat on Carlos' neighbour's window sill straining there ears, "was that a science book he threw" James exclaimed, "do we have science homework?" Kendall shushed him, "shut it, I can't hear- I think their talking about that thing I said…" James brightened "oh yeah, did that work okay?" Kendall flushed and refused to look at James, "I had trouble with the follow through."

James let out an exasperated sigh, it figures; Kendall wouldn't let him read his best friend's diary, Kendall wouldn't hurt his best friend's feelings- Kendall was so useless! Kendall gave him a huffy look "well I don't see you doing anything to Carlos, this whole thing seems pretty one sided!" James rolled his eyes, "I'm staying at the Garcia's tomorrow, I'll snoop then… what are they saying I can't make anything out."

"Carlos is saying- gee Hortense I'm sure glad you're my new bestest friend and not that loser James" Kendall snickered. "Oh yeah I bet Hortense is all, I'm so glad we're friends now so I don't have to pretend I'm interested in sports" Kendall gave a cry of outrage. "Hortense is interested in sports!" though his mind wavered, Hortense never suggested they should go skating or do hockey or anything- what if he didn't like playing sports with him?

"Yeah right" James muttered, "well I bet Carlos is glad he doesn't have to put up with you today, you're so needy and clingy." James blood boiled, "me! You're the needy one, you never want Hortense to hang out with anyone- you've got attachment issues, I don't care who Carlos hangs out with!" Kendall smirks, "sure you do- you just don't want to be replaced."

James shoves Kendall off the ledge. It's a short painful drop.

"Did you hear that?" Hortense asked, a dull thud sound came from outside but when he looked no one was there. "Probably Tony or Vince, they're always messing around" Carlos says dismissively, "They're so reckless." Hortense laughed loudly "like you are one to talk."

They went down stairs and ran into Mr Garcia, "hello boys, you get you're science work done?" they both nodded, "well this is cause for a celebration! Who wants ice cream?"

************-_BTR_-***************

James frantically called his nanny who had been getting a cup of coffee down the street, "I need a ride like right now!" he watched as Mr Garcia's car was almost out of sight when Clara rolled up in her car, "what's up Jamie?" she asked, he looked in the car, a stack of her college books were piled up on the front seat so he grabbed Kendall's hand and shoved him in the back seat.

"Follow that car!"

James tried to fill Clara in (vaguely) on what they were doing, "you're playing spies?" she asked excitedly (Clara was James' more excitable nanny, the other one was a college student too, but Jacinta was mostly angry a lot.) James looked through tinted windows, "where do you think they're headed?" he wonders; "probably to get ice cream, that's his dad's answer to everything" Kendall snickers.

"Yeah; lost hockey games, a good grade, broken ankles, catching him stealing cookies from the jar… ice cream is his answer to everything." James snickered, Kendall nodded, "and Carlos', I guess it must be her-heri ah what's that word Hortense uses?" Clara drums her fingers on the steering wheel "hereditary? Jeez how old is Hortense anyway?" Kendall grinned up at her, "That's it! Oh and he's ten, but his birthday is at the beginning of the year so he's more mature."

"Or that's what he tells us" James snickers "he's not that mature" Kendall elbows him "neither are you **Jamie**."

The car leads them to 'Hal's' and Clara parks the car in the empty spot out front. James licks his lips, thinking about all the ice cream they could be eating, Kendall slaps him. "Don't even think about it, you are not going to ruin the mission over ice cream" James pouts. "How are we even gonna see them anyway?" he whined, though his question was answered a few minuets later when the boys come out with rainbow ice creams in hand and sit on the curb.

Mr Garcia joins them, taking generous licks from this double choc chip ice cream, James almost goes cross eyed- double choc chip ice cream is his favourite. "Open the window a little Kendall, I can't hear" Kendall rolls the window down his window a crack and voices rush in.

"Thank you for buying us ice cream Mr Garcia" Hortense tells him politely (Clara coos over his good manners from her seat in the car only to be told off for her bad spy skills.) Carlos grins widely "yeah thanks dad!" Mr Garcia give them a joyous look, "no problems boys, I'm just glad to see you two enjoying yourselves after a hard day." He pats his son on the shoulder proudly, "you finished all your science activities on time" Hortense smiled at them "he got them all right to… though I did have to go over some math with him- one question in particular, didn't make sense at all!"

Kendall snorted in glee from the car and James went white with horror, he'd forgotten all about the science questions.

Hortense took a long lick, "we should do this in the holidays" he said decidedly, Carlos looked over curiously. "Not the homework part" he amended "the hanging out part, you could teach me how to use a skate board maybe" Carlos' face lit up, "awesome! Now you don't have to strap on your skates every time you want to go somewhere!"

Mr Garcia chuckled at his sons enthusiasm, "but don't get him hurt son, Hortense has that big meet next week- your mum says they're going to bump you up a class." Hortense blushes and grins happily, "Yeah I- wait… is that one of James' family cars?"

James shot up in his seat "mission abort, mission abort we have been compromised!" he grabs Clara's arm "MISSION ABORT!"

Carlos and Hortense looked curiously as the car sped off furiously, "I think" Carlos says slowly, "We must be seeing things…"

**Please review**


	4. Team Mitchell!

**Author's note: it's the second last chapter! Are you getting nostalgic for the times when it wasn't almost over? Okay guys this is a long chapter with Angst… beware the angst. So- ah why has this chapter taken so long? Well I just started back at uni (I passed all my exams BTW- even that stupid chemistry one) and good news I guess, I'm starting a new multi-chap story so you know watch out for that. **

**Oh by the way: Mia Carlos cousin was mostly inspired by and convo with CheekyBrunette so thanks for that!**

Hortense waved brightly at Carlos upon entering the classroom, Carlos waved back enthusiastically brandishing their assignment in one hand and his science work in the other. James was sitting in his seat, furiously writing in his science book. Hortense cursed to himself, he forgot to ring James on Saturday and remind him to do his science homework.

Hortense made his way over to James, pausing to clasp Carlos on the arm in greeting. "Hey Jamie," he said, snagging a chair from an empty seat, "class is about to start." James looks up panicky, pulling at his hair "I know, I know- I'm never going to get this done!" Hortense takes his hand, relaxing his fingers until they were no longer tugging at his hair, "breathe James."

James took shallow breath after shallow breath, "I don't feel better" James told him miserably. "If I'm late with this assignment again, Mrs Cutner is going to ring home and mum's going to be mad." Hortense nodded understandingly, Mrs Diamond was terrifying (not that Hortense saw much of her, especially lately) but the prospect of her yelling at James made all the hairs on the back of his neck stand up in sympathy.

"Did you finish the assignment on the animals?" James nodded miserably, "Jill loves zebras- so she wouldn't even let me help." Hortense nodded and smirked, "that's probably for the best" James glared, "Hortense I am in pain, could you please keep your remarks to yourself." Hortense laughed "okay, okay- look we don't have science till the end of the day, you can borrow my book at lunch."

James' face lit up, "but Hortie, that's cheating!" he whispered excitedly, "I'm willing to do the work if it benefits all of us" he replies grinning, "all of us?" James questions, "Well yeah- the holidays are going to be pretty boring if you're grounded." James reached over and tugged lightly at Hortense's short hair affectionately "your really selfish on the inside aren't you?" Hortense laughed swotting James' hand "absolutely."

The bell rang and Hortense moved over to his desk, Carlos bounced up and down excitedly though seemed a little put out Hortense hadn't stopped to talk. He wasn't really worried though, James seemed to have something going on to do with homework. He probably wouldn't take kindly to Carlos' peppiness over having all his homework done on time for once.

Mrs Cutner shut the door and stood at the front of the class, "good morning class," she said, she looked a little haggard from staying up writing reports. The class chorused the words back at her (well most of them; Toby Jenkins and Sydney Boruk up the back were clearly asleep and a Sally Parkinson was up the front doodling in her notebook again.)

"Okay… since it's the last week we're not going to be doing much-" she waited for the cheers to die down, "but that doesn't mean this isn't a big day- your partnered projects are due today as is your portfolio science work. Now remember this needs to be finished today so I have something to show your parents when they come for interviews."

There was a grown at the mention of end of term interviews; she rolled her eyes at the class. She surveyed the class, "so news this morning, and then after recess you can finish whatever you haven't got done." She eyed her yellow group (they were the weakest) and her red group (the laziest), she was probably going to be running after them all day. "Otherwise it will be quiet free time."

"So if you're work is finished I would like you to hand it in now." Carlos rocketed off his chair, racing to the front desk and dragging Hortense with him. "I'm done! We're done!" Carlos slammed his work on her desk, Mrs Cutner looked at the pages in utter shock. Carlos Garcia never finished anything on time- or correctly. She flipped through the assignment, carefully worded and well presented- this reeked of Hortense Mitchell's work. She picked up his science book… and it yielded similar results- Carlos' handwriting was a little neater but it was defiantly his and it was all done.

"Carlos" she said slowly, "-ah good work?" he beamed at her, she turned to Hortense momentarily taking his science book without looking through it. "You too Hortense" and then shooed them away as the other children lined up with their half finished works. Carlos turns to Hortense and hugs him "yay! First in, we win!" Hortense laughs, "that's not exactly-" he catches sight of Carlos' blissfully proud face "I mean- that was totally all you man, up top!"

He raises his hand and Carlos slaps it, Hortense grabs the smaller boys wrist and moves him out of the way. Carlos walks Hortense to his desk before skipping over to his. James looks up at him, "what are you so happy about Carlos?" he asked annoyed, scribbling out a word in his science book, was that how you spell that photosynthesis? Probably not, he'd get Hortense to check it for him after news.

"Nothing" Carlos told him cheerfully, "it's just… this is a good day right?" James rolled his eyes "if only."

************-_BTR_-***************

Carlos sat on the swing at Lunch by himself pouting, today had started out so great as well! He looked over to where James and Hortense were sitting in the shade; poured over James' unfinished homework- it wasn't fair, Carlos had finished his homework. So why was it like he was getting punished.

Hortense had politely but firmly told him to take his shenanigans elsewhere so James could concentrate and Kendall was MIA all together. He glared at them momentarily. 'It was stupid to be jealous wasn't it?' Carlos hunched his shoulders, he would ask Hortense later, and he usually could explain things that his brain couldn't comprehend. He'd have to wait until James was finished with him to get an answer. Who knew how long that would take…

He caught sight off a tuff of blonde hair out of the corner of his eye, was that Kendall? Carlos sprang up from the swing. Kendall would help distract him!

The trace of blonde disappeared and Carlos looked around wildly, "KENDALL!" Carlos yelled, spinning around in circles trying to find his friend. "erh- dizzy" Carlos mumbled queasily and fell down.

"Carlos?" a voice called questioningly "Jenny?" he looked up at her, a vision in a pretty white dress. "JENNY!" he cried excitedly, "you're a blonde!" He gripped the hem of her dress, she quirked her head at him "yup" she told him brightly. "Does that mean you can find other blondes?" she scratched her head, "why-" Carlos grinned, "twins have super psychic powers and they have the same coloured hair."

They stared at each other for a minuet "thats not right is it?"

Jenny shrugged, "I think that might be racist," Carlos balked at her, "how?" she shrugged again "you were stereotyping me because I'm blonde" he scowled at her "being blonde isn't a race!" he's pretty sure- another thing to ask Hortense when he was free. She crossed her arms and grinned at him "then you're being blonde-ist" Carlos eyes widened, because who could argue with that logic.

He clings to her legs "Jenny you have to use your smartness to help me find Kendall!" she collapsed due to his force and they fell and rolled messily into the sandpit. "Rats!" she muttered the same time he said, "aw- hockey sticks" (one of Kendall's more favourite replacement swears.) her dress was stained and ripped, making it look like every other dress she owned, Carlos looked her up and down "maybe you should stop wearing dresses."

She hit him lightly "I look awesome in dresses" he surveyed her again and agreed "okay." She beamed at him, "Kendall left class in a rush" she told him "he yelled at the teacher and everything, he's in alotta trouble."

Carlos scratched his head, that didn't sound like Kendall or at least not ten-year-old Kendall, nine-year-old Kendall had done things like that all the time, but he had been so good this year. There had been that 'strain' on their friendship that year, Kendall had been so moody and unhappy- he could go days without talking to anyone who wasn't Hortense.

Then when school came back, Kendall had been good as new, with a hundred new pranks to try and answers to everyone's problems. It was like he had never been that person… until he fell into one of his moods. Carlos didn't want to go looking for Kendall on his own. His eyes fell on Jenny.

"Come find him with me?" He asked hopefully, she frowned at him thoughtfully "okay… but only for a second, I promised Trish I'd teach her how to plait her hair." Carlos nodded, that did seem like an important skill- it's why his cousin Mia made him learn how to plait her hair. Either that or she didn't want to do it herself. She made him put like a trillion bows on the end, it was weird.

"We should ask Hortense," she said confidently "why?" she shrugged "he always knows this stuff… maybe he and Kendall are the ones that are connected!" she said proudly, Carlos shook his head, Hortense wasn't connected to anybody because Carlos figured that his constant smartness would give a normal person a bad headache.

"He might know anyway" he said decidedly and grabbed her hand, "he and James are over by that tree." Jenny paled "James?" she squeaked, Carlos nodded "James hates me" she told him sadly. "nooooooooo" Carlos lied, "he's just not quite over what happened to his shoes, he's coming around."

James was not really coming around and showed it by hiding behind a tree when he saw them approaching. Hortense rolled his eyes at the taller boy's antics "don't be rude James." The boy reluctantly came back out, simultaneously sitting impossibly close to Hortense and as far away as he could manage from Jenny.

"I'm sorry about the thing with the paint" Jenny told him sincerely "I think he was more squeamish about all the blood Jenny, he did have to get a blood transfusion." Logan told her kindly, she frowned "oh" Hortense patted her hesitantly on the arm, "well I'm sure it wont happen again now that your not aloud to wear high tops anymore."

Carlos cleared his throat; "Hortense" Hortense turned and looked at Carlos. "Yes Carlos?" Hortense handed James the book, James gave him a soft smile in return- and Carlos felt horrible for ever feeling jealous of them- it was obviously a different friendship than he had with either boy. "Have you seen Kendall today?" Hortense shook his head, "no I've been busy with James" Carlos frowned "Jenny says he's been off."

Hortense looked worried, James grabbed Hortense "I've still got ten questions!" he said panicky. Hortense looked torn "I'll catch up with him soon Carlos, why don't you check under the jungle gym- he hides there sometimes." Carlos nodded and turned to Jenny but she was already edging away "you want to find Trish right?" he asked dejectedly, she nodded smaller "I don't want to make things worse, I kind of do that."

She rushed off and Carlos sighed "wow Carlos I see you have a way with the ladies" James sniggered. Carlos and Hortense smacked him simultaneously, "what?" James cried, "I'm just speaking the truth!" Hortense glared "maybe you can do these by yourself." James' eyes went wide "NO!" he flung himself on Hortense knocking them flat on the ground, James pinned him easily "don't go! I want you to stay," he sounded almost… desperate.

Hortense suddenly felt it click into place, this wasn't just about homework. It probably didn't have anything at all to do with what they were working on. His eyes flickered to Carlos who was already backing away from them with a look of annoyance.

Carlos would have to help Kendall, and Hortense would have to stay with James.

************-_BTR_-***************

Kendall is hiding under the jungle gym, knees to his chest; staring blankly at the plastic wall.

The bottom of the jungle gym is four plastic walls with a crawling space to get in and out, nobody is supposed to go under there because a normal sized adult couldn't fit through it. That was the reason Kendall loved it the most, it left him alone, to watch feet walk pass and listen to the creeky sound of people playing above him. Almost like the whole thing would fall down on him.

Two shoes stopped at the opening, two familiar white and blue sneakers dug into the sand as if nervous. 'No' Kendall thought gloomily 'not you, go away.'

Jean covered knees appeared into view and Kendall quickly wiped his mostly dry face, rubbing his eyes. Carlos stuck his head in, "Kendall" he called hesitantly, their eyes lock and Kendall can feel the sudden lack of light prick his eyes uncomfortably. He glares, uselessly angry "go away Carlos, I don't want you here."

The words bite, but after all this time Carlos has learnt not to let the little things Kendall says in the heat of the moment hurt too much. He crawls in; there is almost no space between them, nowhere to hide and no physical way for Kendall to get out. "I don't care, I need to be here."

It's all so serious now, but Kendall doesn't want to say it to anyone, especially not to Carlos. Watching Carlos and Hortense that weekend just intensified everything, Carlos had a loving family. Two parents who cared about him- who wanted him there. He had Hortense whenever he needed him. He could be who ever he wanted and everyone would support him.

Kendall was dealing with a constant wave that everything was not right for weeks; things were getting worse and worse, not better. Times were tough, and his mum was never home and really all he really wanted was to burn that stupid ice cream place to the ground. Anything to make him feel better… even only momentarily.

Carlos puts his arm around him, but he wants Hortense. Where is Hortense? Why isn't he here?

He can feel himself breaking apart and he doesn't want to, grown-ups don't do that and that's what he needs to be now, a grown-up.

"Why are you sad Kendall?" Carlos asks quietly, and Kendall leans into him, Carlos is warm and kind and it's almost enough just to sit with him and everything to be okay. "I don't know" he chokes out, it's almost the truth and Carlos believes him. He doesn't want Carlos to see him like this; nobody was supposed to see this. It was a weak moment.

And he's not sure he can keep his friends if he's not stronger.

"It's okay to be lonely sometimes" Carlos tells him and hugs him tighter, Kendall just shakes and falls apart. "It's hard doing things on your own, so you don't have too all the time."

"I-I don't want to feel-" Kendall doesn't know how to explain, when he's sad he talks to Hortense and everything is just unexplainably okay. But he hasn't felt unexplainably okay for a while, and he's coming apart under the strain of it all.

Carlos lets go of his friend. And silently crawls out of the hidey-hole, Kendall takes a sharp breath and follows. Carlos leads him to the bathroom and grabs a bunch of paper towel and wets them, "I don't know what to say to make this better," Carlos, tells him honestly. Kendall smiles shakily "that's okay, I think I'm okay."

Carlos looks at him forlornly "hey Kendall" he says slowly, "guess what" Kendall shrugs "what" Carlos looks at him seriously "What are unhappy cranberries called?" Kendall shrugs uselessly at the random question.

"Blueberries."

They laugh for a good long while until they don't know what they're laughing about anymore.

************-_BTR_-***************

Hortense and Carlos sit across from each other before school, Carlos had insisted they go early for their last day of school. They were sitting cross-legged, knees touching and Carlos was twitching.

"Rehearse it with me one more time" Hortense said unsurely "Aw- again?" Carlos whined but did as he was told, "Mrs Cutner" he recited "I think it would be in everyone's best interest if Kendall Knight switched classes for next term."

"Why?" Hortense asked, "he is not- not meeting his fullest potential and feels isolated."

"Really?" An amused voice asks and they both whip around to see Mrs Cutner coffee in hand and bag over shoulder. "Mrs Cutner!" Carlos yelps scandalised, Hortense rubs his neck in both embarrassment and suspected whiplash. She sits down and her desk and beckons them over, "neither of you are very sneaky" she tells them lightly. She shuffles papers and Carlos drags over two seats so they can sit across from her.

"So what is the real reason Kendall wants to move?" she asks "that is the real reason!" Carlos said insistently "or maybe I could move" Hortense adds firmly "I don't mind." Carlos looks at Hortense in surprise "I don't want you to move!" Hortense smiles softly, "I'll still see you" Carlos grabs his hands "that's not the same thing."

"That brings us back to the point actually" he slips out of Carlos' grip and turns to Mrs Cutner "I'm worried about Kendall."

Mrs Cutner sighed, Jane (Mrs Frances, Kendall's teacher) had been complaining loudly and uncaringly of Kendall's recent increasingly unmanageable behaviour. They knew why, things had gotten tight in the household; Kendall was under a lot of stress and didn't seem to be coping. But if Jane- the more experience teacher couldn't control him what hope did she have?

"Do you think he'll be happier here?" she asks carefully, the whole reason Kendall Knight wasn't in her class this year was his previous track record with misbehaviour. "Because we're here!" Carlos told her truly "and we make him happy." Hortense adds hopefully, "he doesn't smile much anymore, and I want him too!"

Mrs Cutner could feel her heart break for these boys; they really just wanted to help with something too big for them. She rested her hands on the boys shoulders "I'll see what I can do boys" they both cheered, "I promise nothing!" she told them firmly, she wasn't even sure how Jane would react- switch classes was a giant hassle. Plus it would mean interview and rearranging schedules and a whole lot of extra work in their holiday time.

"Are you sure he'd even want this?" she asked, they both nodded furiously, "what about in a couple of weeks?" they nodded again "he'll want this always" Carlos confirmed strongly. Mrs Cutner watched Hortense squeeze Carlos' hand affectionately and she couldn't help but think maybe a change of scenery might help in this situation.

"I'll have to talk to Kendall- but for now go play outside, class doesn't start for a while." She'd have to talk to Jane…

************-_BTR_-***************

Kendall sat in Carlos' kitchen with James, Kendall was feeling a whole lot better about Carlos now that he knew Carlos wouldn't make fun of him for crying. Katie was flat on her stomach on the floor, she had a book, like she normally did and seemed unaffected by her surroundings.

"Thank you so much for looking after the kids" Mrs Knight gushed to Mrs Garcia, "no trouble at all Jen, you know their welcome here **any** time." Clara grinned at both of them, "and you always know their welcome to have play dates with James" she hushed her voice "I think the company would do him some good right now."

"Well" Mrs Knight smiled brightly, "I've got a parent/teacher interview to get too, and to think I was just at one yesterday. I've got to say it's going to be intimidating with both of them there!"

Kendall, James and Carlos spread card on the table, "why isn't Hortense here?" Kendall whined like Hortense hadn't spent the last two nights sleeping over in veto of getting in extra practice for his meet on Sunday. "He's at the gym" James tells him, Carlos rolls his eyes "yeah and we can't tell him about this- It'll ruin the surprise!"

He had already started, stencilling the words 'TEAM MITCHELL' in pencil and was about to go over it in bright colours. He wanted to draw a big rainbow on it (because they both loved rainbows) but Kendall was adamant he wasn't to do that. So he stuck to drawing 'gymnastic' things- only he wasn't sure what they were.

"BALLET SLIPPERS AREN'T GYMNASTIC THINGS!" James screeched taking the lead pencil from Carlos' hand and began erasing the half drawn picture. "Then what do they wear?" he asked curiously "nothing if they can help it" Kendall piped up and then they all burst into giggles. Kendall hadn't meant to imply that Hortense would do gymnastics naked (though when he was sixteen he would say the exact same statement with the full intention of that interpretation.)

"MIA" Mrs Garcia called from the front of the house, "I'm going to go get milk, watch the boys will you!" Carlos' cousin Mia flounced out, Mia was fourteen and made James go cross-eyes and tongue tied every time he saw her- much like Carlos' sister Alexis. She was very pretty, but made Carlos and Kendall go cross-eyed for another reason. She wore nothing but bright pink, and variations of the colour.

"Hi Mia" James said dreamily, she made a face at him and crossed her arms, "don't do anything stupid while mum's out Carlos, I mean it, I am not picking you up off the side of the road if you try to bungy jump with yarn." Carlos' eyes lit up, he turned to Kendall, who shut him down immediatly. Kendall turned to Mia with fake excitement "Hi Mia! It sure looks like a unicorn threw up on you!"

James hit him as Mia made another face, Teresita wandered into the room. "Hi guys" she said brightly, going red at the sight of James "H-hey James" and then turns for the fridge. "Where's Hortense?" she asked curiously, both Mia and Carlos raised their eyebrows at her, "what I can't ask a question?" she mutters embarrassed.

"It's embarrassing" Mia told her, "why do you crush on Carlos' little baby friends you're a teenage now." Teresita went even darker "I don't-" Kendall spoke up "Hey Tere- don't you have cheerleading?" she smiled gratefully, "no we finished last week, but I learnt a really cool move, wanna see!"

She beckoned them outside, and on the grass the proceeded to do several backflips and a handspring in quick rapid succession. "That's so cool!" Kendall gushed to her, he felt bad that Mia was being mean to her, "yeah, I'll wonder if Hortense will do that on Sunday" James added. "Hortense has a gymnastics meet then, we're making posters to cheer him on."

"Oh he'll hate that" Teresita laughed, the boys grinned "oh we know."

************-_BTR_-***************

"James…" Kendall said hesitantly, lying down on the grass in the park. "What?" James asked agitatedly, he lay on his back and two rats ran along his stomach. "Why did you bring cuddle-pot and cutie-pie to our meeting?"

James sits up and picked up the rats gently, stuffing them into the pockets of his oversized coats. "The rat-babies are in hiding, mum has decided that they're disease infested and wants to get rid of them," he told him despairingly. Kendall patted one of James' squirming pockets lightly, "don't worry rat-babies, we won't let Mrs Diamond get you."

"Would you mind taking them home tonight?" James asked hopefully, Kendall looked hesitant and then shook his head. "Mum said I can't have pets after what happened to Mr Hamsterton the third" James nodded grimly, they had learnt soon enough that their rocket making skills were not adequate enough to have live passengers.

"So the plan" James pushed forward, Kendall frowned "I'm not sure, I think we could be being mean." James made a face "of course we're being mean!" James yelled, "That's the point!" Kendall made a face at him "no it isn't!"

"Did you think this was going to hurt them?" James asked blankly "well yes…" James cut him off "but you we're going to do it anyway." Kendall bit his lip "yes" he said in a small voice, "then you were being mean." James told him matter of fact. "Well maybe I don't want to anymore!" Kendall scowled; James leant over and slapped him.

"Snap out of it Kendall" Kendall looked at him dumbly, "you- you slapped me" he said faintly "what kind of person SLAPS SOMEONE!" James rolled his eyes "you were being hysterical," Kendall lunged at him "I'll show you hysterical!" tackling him to the ground "the rats! The rats!" James shrieked, Kendall let the rats escaped before assuming his attack.

"Violence is not the answer Kendall" James muffled, trying to throw the blonde boy off. "Really that's not what you said that time I broke your comb" he growled, pushing him further into the dirt "well yeah but that was different- I loved that comb more than you love your face."

Kendall sat up and helped James up "true." James scrambled up groping for his mirror and comb "aw" he whined "I have dirt clumps in my hair." Kendall picked up the rats, who were lolling on the ground, "we'll try it one more time okay James."

James beamed, Kendall creased his eyebrows "why do you want this so badly?" James shrugged "I dunno why do you?" he took his rats cradling them gently "Hortense likes me the best" he said honestly, and James pretends it doesn't sting. "What if he doesn't like me the best anymore."

"You are incredibly insecure- and that's totally not the reason" James scoffed, "you like that you have control… them doing things without us, takes away the control." Kendall glares at him "you make me sound like a control freak" James sniggered "only cause you are."

Kendall looks tempted to tackle him again "I" his tone serious "am going to smack you down like the hand of God." James let out and 'epp' and scrambled to his feet. "Come here" James clutched his rats and ran "never!"

The chase began, James had longer legs but Kendall had more stamina and James was rapidly running out of steam. He turned a corner quickly, Kendall ran straight for a few seconds too long and had to double back, putting James firmly in the lead again. "Come back here so I can hurt you!" Kendall yelled, grinning sillily "tempting" James huffed "but no."

He turned his head back to the front, and ran straight into a man. "Argh" James said landing on the pavement hard, "get out of the way kid" the man growled stepping over him. "You alright?" Kendall asked out of breath, helping James up "yeah" he held onto his shoulder. "Hey look where we are" Kendall said in surprise, James turned and came face to face with 'Hal's.'

"You want some ice cream?" James asked, Kendall shrugged pitifully and James sighed, "it's on me" Kendall perked up "well if you insist." He opened the door for James and they raced to the counter, "hey, hey, hey!" Kendall said excitedly, hitting the counter repeatedly the girl behind the counter winced and turned.

"Hi boys, how may I help you?" James put his finger to his lip "two double choc fudge triple scoops please." The girl smiled, "just a minuet…" a flood of people rushed in as she made the second ice cream "oh hell" she muttered, "this is why I hate Saturdays."

They took the ice creams and sat at a booth, "who hates Saturdays?" Kendall asks in disgust, ice cream already covering his face, James licked his gingerly and shrugs. "Crazy people who think working at an ice cream place sucks, I mean what's bad about ice cream? Nothing!" Kendall nodded.

James' pocket squirmed "no cuddle-pot" he hissed, "you don't want to meet your end at an ice cream place." Kendall laughed, "That's where I want to meet my end" he stuck his foot up and lightly touched James pocket with the toe of his shoe. "Smart rat."

"No dumb rat, stop it!" Kendall sighed, "they mean a lot to you don't they?" James nodded "they're all the family I- wait Cutie-pie… CUTIE PIE!" he groped through his other pocket, "he gnawed his way out!" he his, he got down on the ground, "quick Kendall help!"

"AHHH!" The girl behind the counter screamed and James ran, the other ran slipped out and people jumped up onto the table. "Are those yours?" the girl screamed "n-no" James lie, picking up Cutie-pie, "you must have a rat problem- I'll grab this one Kendall catch the other one.

It took a few minuets to get the willy Snuggle-pot and then they bolted of the store, rats in hand.

************-_BTR_-***************

Carlos held his sign close "can you see him? I can't see anything! Can you see him?" Kendall smacked him on the back of the head affectionately "he's on the sidelines" James ruffles the smaller boy's hair "and of course you can't see him, your short."

"Oh! Oh! Look he's about to start" Kendall shrieked holding up his sign 'Hortie's no 1.' Carlos looked around wildly and James turned his friends body so he was facing the right direction, the commenter rambled unhelpfully and Logan grasped his hands on the parallel bars.

They watched in silence as he pulled himself up and started his routine, "wow" Kendall muttered. "Hortie's strong" Carlos said in surprise, it was a rare opportunity to see Hortense use his upper body strength it was actually quite impressive.

James looked down at his arms "I should start working out more" he said determinedly. Kendall rolled his eyes "that would require will power James, and you- have none." James smacked Kendall and Carlos leaned forward so he wouldn't come between the budding slap fight, "boys!" Tereista scolded them. Their hands stilled "sorry Tere" they muttered and she trained her eyes back on Hortense.

He flipped and landed on the mats. "WHOOOOOOOO" Kendall screamed and James and Carlos screamed wildly waving their signs, Hortense turned and blushed darkly. He ran off the mat embarrassed, they had done that all day- right to the last area of the meet.

The judges scored him, "is that good- how do we know if that's good?" Carlos asked after the numbers were read out, "it's very good Carlos" Mr Garcia beamed. Carlos let out another whoop, "just one more now!"

"He's nervous about this one" James muttered knowledgably the rest of the group turned to look at him, "his last event is the rings and his dismount has gone up a level in difficulty." Kendall scratched his head "I don't know what that means" Carlos nodded confused, "it means it's going to be wicked."

They waited impatiently for the last few people on parallel bars and screamed loudly when Hortense came in second. They sat down and Hortense walked over to the coach who slapped him heartily on the back.

All too soon it was time for the rings, they waited impatiently through the boys from the other gym and one of Hortense's gym friends who crashed hard on the dismount. They all winced in unison, "is he gonna be okay?" Carlos whimpered "he's fine hunny" Mrs Garcia assured them, "yeah" Mr Garcia commented "kids get hurt in gymnastics all the time."

The boys went white thinking back to Hortense's last gymnastics related accident; he broke his wrist during an unsuccessful vault dismount. Mrs Garcia smacked Mr Garcia "what?" he complained, Tereista hit him as well "what is this hit Papi day?" Carlos reached over and smacked his Papi "yup!"

"Come here you-" Carlos shrieked, diving for cover "shh- here he comes!" James raised his sign 'Hortense Mitchell for the gold' (his sign had been a bit more liberal with design and was by far the prettiest.) they watched in bated breath as Hortense jumped up and grabbed the rings, the bottom half of his body going completely ridged.

Carlos gasped and he flipped in the air, and caught his body weight with the rings once more- the routine looked far more difficult than anything else shown so far and if the hush over the crowd was any indication, he was doing really well. "Here comes the hard bit" James hissed and Hortense dismounted in several perfect flips.

They weren't the only ones going wild.

After the meet, Hortense ran up to them, gold medal in hand. "I can't believe our gym won!" Kendall laughed, "yeah well you dominated every section genius" he wrapped his arm around him. "You were awesome!" Hortense blushed "thanks" he muttered.

"Come on boys" Mr Garcia called, "I'm taking you home, I'm dropping you right James?" the boy nodded mutely.

When they pulled up at James house Hortense walked him to the door, "thanks for coming" Hortense said shyly- "sorry me and Carlos are getting ice cream without you, it's just you know" he waved his hand. "Tradition?" James asked, Hortense nodded, James unlocked the door. Screams began to echo throughout the large house; James winced as a plate smashed.

"You know what…" Hortense said grabbing James' hand "you can sleep over, grab your stuff" the door opened wide and they could hear James' mum breaking plates. "You know what forget that, Kendall left some clothes at my place- you can wear those."

And with that Hortense pulled James back to the car.

**As always please review (any ideas about the ending)**


	5. Wholesome team building Activities

**Author's note: Yes everyone this is the last chapter! I am finally done (as fun as this has been to write.) I'm hoping this bridges the gap of them being friends to being best friends, but donno. Anyway I hope you like it.**

**Shameless plug****: I have just begun a new story called 'The four humours' and is about the girls of Palmwoods (though has a ton of BTR best friendsness) and follows after the cannon of another one of my stories (though not a necessary read) Big time Break up. So if you like my stories please check it out. Okay without further ado:**

Kendall ended up turning up at Hortense's house, nervous but sure. To say Hortense looked surprised may be a bit of an understatement, he blinked rapidly at the blonde like he might be some cruel trick of light. "What- what are you doing here?" Kendall scratched the back of his head in mild embarrassment. "What a guy can't visit his best friend?" Hortense smiled with a rather contemplative expression on his face "a guy might… but I didn't think **you** would."

Kendall gave him a semi pained look, "well turns out I am that Guy." he bit his lip in an indecisive manner and then confessed "I spent most of the morning trying to work up the nerve to come here." Hortense smiled sympathetically "seems like you used up all your nerve knocking on the door." Hortense moved from the doorway, leaving room so if Kendall was inclined he could come inside, this gesture was largely ignored though. Instead Kendall floundered for a moment; he looked up and met Hortense's eyes. He was trying to collect himself.

"How is he?"

"Why don't you ask him?" Hortense asked, Kendall didn't move. "I can't" he told his friend shamefaced "I want to, but I just... can't" he wanted to reach out to Hortense, for a second of comforting contact that his friend that his friend usually made so 'available' to him. Hortense didn't seem very open to that idea though, his arms were crossed and he stood away from him.

"I understand" Hortense told him, conflicting emotions flit across his face until they settle on one of Hortense's usual soft gazes. " He's in my room right now" he prompted, the shorted boy was looking him straight in the eye "you can come in."

Kendall shook his head "no," he shook his head sadly "I want to..." Hortense leant over and squeezed his arm "you don't have to say anything to be there for him." Kendall gave him a look "not that you and James could probably have a cordial conversation right now- he's taken a queue from the old Knight playbook and is working through his feelings with aggression."

Kendall ignored all the non-verbal cues Hortense was giving telling him not to touch him and pulled the smaller boy into a hug. "Don't-" he started to tell Hortense, "I'm fine!" he told the blonde, tugging his friend's hair gently "I'm not the one to worry about." Kendall pulled his friend in even closer "it's easier to worry about you..."

Hortense rolled his eyes "yes, but I've never actually needed someone to worry about me." Kendall let the boy go "yes you do... who else is going too!" Hortense gave him an annoyed look "now if only you could be like this with the others..."

Kendall chuckled; "I'm only one man Hortie!" Hortense ruffled his hair "yeah, but you're Kendall Knight, I hear you can do anything." Kendall fell into deep thought, could he fix this? "I can do anything?"

"Yeah Kendall" Hortense smiled faintly, "you're the only one who doesn't seem to think so."

************-_BTR_-***************

Hortense walked up to his room, James was lying face down on his bed. It was a pose James adopted frequently since their one night sleepover had stretched out to a summer long affair.

"You were gone for ages" James told him muffled, "and your bed is uncomfortable!" Hortense sat at the edge of the bed, grabbing James bare feet and placing them on his lap. "Maybe" Hortense ran his finger along the base of the foot, tickling it "you should go back to your own bed!" James kicked his foot giggling, though he put on a face of betrayal.

"DON'T!" he shrieked, kicking Hortense when his hand tried to catch his foot again. Hortense just snickered "was that that a giggle I heard Jamie?" James edged away from the smaller boy who advanced on him slowly.

"Hortense Clarence Mitchell! You stop that right now!"

Hortense pulled back horrified "Clarence is not my middle name!" James smirked at him "oh, no?" Hortense glared "no it is; 'I'm not going to fall for that ridiculous trick James.'" James grinned, "That's an awfully long name I see why you don't use it!"

Hortense glared and the launched himself at James to commence his previously planned tickle attack. "ARGH! Get off!" James yelled "never!" Hortense roared imitating that one brave heart scene everyone knew.

"You're haha supposed to hahaha be ha making me HAHAHAHAHA feel BETTER Hortense!" James told him though laughter, Hortense snorted "you seem okay too me."

"I'm masking ha a deeper pain hahaha" James finally had enough, flipping them over and pinning Hortense to the bed. "You know what would make me feel better?" James told him slyly a ghost of a smirk danced across his face, Hortense shook his head.

"If you tell me your middle name!" Hortense gasped horrified "never!" James stared his down mouth twitching "oh COME ON! It can't be worse than Hortense!" James gauged his friend's face "...or can it?" he asked gleefully, Hortense glared up at him.

"Boys have you seen my..."

Mrs. Mitchell walked into the room and stopped short looking at the boys "hmmm" she said took in the sight of the boys on the bed, one draped over the other. She raised her eyebrow at them.

"IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK!" they both yelled in chorus, Mrs. Mitchell raised her hand in defense "hey I didn't say anything!"

She watched them belatedly spring apart "I am going to have to ask you not sleep in Hortense's bed tonight, James." Hortense went red but James grinned brightly "don't worry Hortense said I could bring my bed over!" Hortense gaped "I said no such thing!" James nodded "you totally did!"

"Maybe you were distracted" Mrs. Mitchell teased "you're lucky your dad's away- he's been pushing for military school."

Hortense and James paled simultaneously, Mrs. Mitchell smirked "well... I think that's enough parenting for one day." she nodded self-satisfied "this doesn't make you good parent!" Hortense told her but Mrs. Mitchell just smirked at him.

She turned to leave, making it almost out the door when she heard- "hey Mrs. Mitchell!" James yelled excitedly "what is Hortense's middle name?" Hortense covered James' ears "don't you dare" he warned his mother in a hiss.

She grinned "well James I'd hate to disappoint a future son-in-law" James went red and Hortense covered his face with his hands in embarrassment. "But... I have been sworn to silence- several in-laws have informed me it was a type of child abuse. Ha Texans- they really need to lighten up."

************-_BTR_-***************

Kendall left an ambiguous message on Hortense's answering machine, telling him to meet him at the tree. He also said to bring James, which had Hortense frozen in shock until James slapped him hard. He then asked what 'the tree' was. Hortense opened and closed his mouth uselessly like a fish for a few minuets.

He grinned brightly at him, "only the most awesome thing ever!" Hortense assured him, James smiled weakly "something just for the two of you?" Hortense laughed "and now you too!"

Hortense practically pushed him out the door, he impatiently helped James put on his skates and then jumped on his bike. James held onto the back of Hortense's bike and he took off at an incredible speed. "So where are we going?" James asked fearfully, holding onto the bike tightly and didn't even bother trying to skate, simply allowing Hortense to drag along his dead weight.

"Not too far" Hortense promised, the park was closer to Kendall's place than his house- so Kendall should be waiting for them. From the direction they didn't have to cross a creek, so when they hit the trees, Hortense threw his bike against a tree and locked it. He dug underneath a bush pulling out a box where he would normally hide his cumbersome skates. James carefully took off his skates and pulled out his shoes from his bag.

They walked through the trees until Hortense spotted blonde within all the green and brown. They ran forward to find Carlos sitting under a tree (but not the tree) and Kendall pacing impatiently in front of him. "There you guys are!" Kendall whined loudly "take forever much!" Hortense rolled his eyes "what's this all about then Kendall?"

Kendall rolled his eyes, "I thought you of all people would know, it was your idea!" Hortense gave him a particularly annoyed "when do I keep saying these things" he complained grumpily, James nudged him smirking. "You'll have to excuse my future husband, he's grumpy right now."

Kendall's mouth formed a thin line, "this" he cleared his throat "is actually what I wanted to talk to you guys about." James groaned, "don't worry Kendall- we're not actually getting married." Kendall smacked him "I'm not an idiot you know... look just sit down will you."

Carlos grabbed James' hand pulling him down to sit next to him. Hortense eyed Kendall curiously and then shrugged, sitting on the other side of Carlos who touched his shoulder affectionately.

Kendall paced in front of them for a few minuets, making a concerted effort not to bite his lip. "I- well um-" he tried "God this is hard... Okay, look- things are sucky right now but that's all about to change." He looks at Hortense briefly to make sure he's on the right track. Hortense nodded at him smiling but unsure.

"I haven't been the greatest friend to everyone" he casts James a reproachful look "whether they know it or not" he made hesitant eye contact with Carlos. "But that stops right now!" Kendall looked lost there was so much he wanted to say, but he wasn't sure how to say it.

"I think," Hortense said hesitantly "it's not that you- or any of us are not good friends but that we don't feel comfortable sharing everything." James frowned "like how I knew my dad was having an affair and didn't tell you guys about it?"

"Yeah" Carlos muttered quietly at James "why is that? Why didn't you ever?" James glared "it's not as if you all didn't know! Why didn't you guys talk to me about it?" Kendall and Hortense shared a guilty look and Carlos simply glared "I didn't know! Why didn't anyone ever tell me?"

They shrugged; James' family life going to hell wasn't something new and certainly wasn't something they talked about, it was just understood that they all knew. Or at least that's what they thought. They didn't talk about it… mostly because they didn't want to draw attention to their own family dysfunctions. (Well most of them, Carlos had never really understood that people's home lives weren't necessarily anything like his own.)

"So" he said firmly "tell me now" James stated at his best friend lip wobbling. "Carlos" he told him shakily "My parents are getting a divorce…" Carlos gave him a soft look, pulling him into a hug. "I know."

Kendall looked at the two thin mouthed, "I'm," he said unsurely "I mean my dad doesn't want to see me ever again. He's getting remarried, he's starting over and he wants to forget 'we' ever happened."

Hortense put his hand on his arm with a sympathetic pained look on his face, "I saw them" he practically whispered, "he's still living in Minnesota... He- he just doesn't want me!" James leans over to include both of the other boys into the hug. "I- I don't think my parents want me either, my dad has his girlfriend and mum has work... And I have you guys..."

"You always have us," Carlos told him immediately.

"Ah guys" Hortense said, he was trapped between James and Kendall. "I'm kind of overheating, can we finish the group hug now?" James laughed, he wasn't crying anymore and the boys considered that a win.

"That's quitter talk!" Kendall informed hi squeezing tighter, "you aren't a quitter are you Hortense?" Carlos teased him; "yes I am," he told them sincerely trying to pull away. "It's important to know when to cut your losses."

James and Kendall's eyes met, the same sly smirk crossed their faces. "DOG PILE!" The screamed, Carlos whooped and Hortense screeched in terror "WAIT!" They all fell on top of him, "turns out quitters end up at the bottom of a dog pile." Carlos taunted Hortense, "you can go straight to hell Carlos Garcia!" he shot back, Kendall let out a mock gasp "not the dreaded H word!" Hortense elbowed him in the gut "okay I love you guys but you all need to get up off me..."

Kendall shot up; forcing the other two up with him "so do you guys want to see the tree?" James raised his eyebrow "I thought we were at the tree, they all look the same to me" Carlos pointed his finger at James in mock horror "racist!" Hortense copied his action "treeist! This is our tree's wife."

Kendall nodded "she choose well" and checked out the tree they were leaning on. "Did- did you just check out a tree? Is your tree a lesbian? I'm so confused" James moaned. Kendall moved to a close by tree "this" he emphasised "is our tree." Hortense grinned "George" he added. "Nina" Kendall argued insisted like this was an old argument, "George is a rubbish name for a sexually ambiguous tree!" Hortense glared "oh because Nina is so general neutral!"

"No! Because Nina is-" James cut Kendall of "ah guys! Get to the point will you!" the two boys glared heatedly "fine, look Nina has a trick to her" he ignored Hortense's small sound of outrage.

He ran his hand along the bark, fingers finding the catch and the bark lifted away. "So here it is," Kendall said lightly "everything you ever wanted to know about me.

**********-_BTR_-*************

James did in fact get his bed into Hortense's room (though not without a lot of whining from Hortense and gentle suggestions that maybe he should sleep at his own house for a while.)

After them clearing most of his stuff the bed just managed to squeeze in. Mrs. Mitchell was mostly indifferent about the whole matter, Hortense told James there wasn't much difference between ignoring two children instead of one. Mrs. Diamond had been resigned to the whole thing but after James assured her 'there was no way in hell he was going to live with his dad.' she gave him a credit card and told him to do whatever he liked with his little friends and sent his nannies to the Mitchell's household instead of the Diamond residence.

Carlos was quick to demand constant sleepovers from his parents (his parents were always hesitant to let Carlos actually sleepover at the Mitchell household and gave him a cell phone for emergencies.) and Kendall was quick to follow behind, hating to be left out of anything, but couldn't stay over as much.

Carlos and Kendall laid on James/Hortense's beds (they were smooshed together to fit in the small room.) Carlos was rolling happily in the nest of blankets and Kendall was watching him amusedly. "Do you need a moment alone?" he asked jokingly, Carlos hummed "or two... Or three" he mumbled happily.

James walked in "geez! You guys are here more than I am!" both boys snorted in disbelief, James had at some point fallen madly in love with Hortense's room. So much so Hortense had joked that James was using him for his room. James chucked down his shopping bags on the bed (there was no floor space left for him to chuck things.) "Did you have fun shopping?" Carlos snickered.

"No" an exhausted Hortense said leaning on the door "no I did not!" he surveyed the boys sprawled on his bed "how" he sighed "is it you guys are here more than I am?" all three boys burst out into hysterical laughter. "What?"

Once they collected themselves and Carlos had rolled off the bed inexplicably onto the half a meter of available floor. "What was so bad about shopping" Carlos asks rubbing his head. "It's shopping with **JAMES** Carlos!" Hortense told him annoyed. "I would never have gone at all, but James buried all my sweater-vests in some undisclosed location." James looked unrepentant about this matter "I drew you a treasure map- not that there is really any treasure there." he snickered and turned to Kendall who was scowling "relax Ken-doll I just made him buy some t shirts and hoodies." he waved his credit card in the air "curtsy of dad- guilt… is a wonderful thing!"

"I thought your mum gave you the credit card?" Kendall asked curiously, James produced a second card grinning slightly. "She did- they're only talking to each other through their lawyers right now..."

"What was it like when your parents split?" he asked Kendall, who rolled his eyes "well my parents weren't a make-up mogul and the owner of a successful music store so you know no credit cards." James blushed embarrassed, "it's okay" he assured him "mostly... It was kind of… a relief, mum was always crying and dad was almost never home and then after they split dad was never home and mum was still always crying."

"I was a jerk a lot- but people put up with me anyway" Kendall gave Hortense a fond look, "and things eventually got better." James hugged his legs "I don't know what's going to happen- okay that's a lie, I'm going to probably see my dad one week out of three and my mum will probably work even more." he sighed "nothing much is going to really change except sometimes you'll visit me in a condo or a flat or something."

Hortense laughed, "That would require you to leave my room," he teased. Kendall nudged him and James grinned "no way, I secretly plan to live with you forever."

"Oh, oh I wanna live with you too!" Carlos cheered; Hortense raised his hands "no way! I vote we all live with Kendall" Hortense told them "what why?" Kendall cried as Hortense rolled his eyes, "you have the best room."

"No I do!" James argued "yeah" Hortense conceded "but you don't want to go back there." Kendall sighed "okay... but Carlos and James have to sleep in the spare bedroom, Carlos is a snorer and rooming with James has proved to be nightmare" he looked thoughtful for a moment "and I want this bed" he demanded pointing at James' bed.

"Never!" Carlos yelled, he jumped and tackled Kendall on the bed. "Guys" Hortense complained jumping out of the way "don't wreck my clothes- we shopped for them all day!" They stopped immediately "What are we doing tomorrow?" Carlos asked jumping smoothly up off of Kendall after several minuets of smothering Kendall's face into a pillow. "Please don't say shopping."

"I have an idea," Kendall said brightly "another one- you've been having a lot lately" Hortense jeered, Kendall punched him. "James we're going to need one of your credit cards."

"Visa or American Express?"

**********-_BTR_-*************

James stared intently at the chinchilla, "Carlos" he sighed "do you think that a chinchilla has softer hair than me?" Carlos sized up the chinchilla and then looked back at James "no way!" he told him confidently "good" James said to himself "I bet it doesn't even condition!"

Kendall's big idea had been three fold; camping, the zoo and a surprise third option (Hortense maintains he just couldn't think of a third thing.) The zoo had been the glaring first choice and Clara (who was becoming unreasonably fond of them and also a huge push over) agreed to take them.

They had gotten split when Hortense had very excitedly dragged Kendall off to the butterfly house, something the other two boys decided to opt out of. They instead were going up to the enclosures and James would ask Carlos if he was prettier than the animal. Carlos learnt quickly that the answer was always yes; no hesitation or James would go into a spiral of depression.

Carlos' phone rang "why does it say you are calling me?" Carlos asked James curiously, James peered over his shoulder "oh" he said dismissively "I gave it to Kendall so we could find each other again."

"Hello" Carlos answered brightly, he hadn't quite got the hang of the whole mobile phone thing and spoke far to loudly. "Carlos" Hortense said in a voice much to quiet in Carlos' opinion. "We're at the entrance of the butterfly house and we're hungry, wanna come meet us" James who had been listening by pressing his head close to the phone.

He nicked the phone from Carlos' hand, "nah- we'll meet you at that park area next to the penguins." James and Hortense briefly argued over where to meet until James slammed the phone shut. "Come on Carlos" he told him pulling him along "to where?" Carlos asked fearfully "to the penguins!" James said proudly, "Hortense is no match for my negotiation skills."

"You are more like your mother every day" Carlos muttered gleefully.

When they met up Hortense produced three peanut butter and jam sandwiches "I packed them this morning" he explained. He handed Kendall the lone cheese and pickle sandwich "you don't like peanuts right?" he asked the boy who nodded and to the replacement sandwich gratefully.

"What now?" Carlos asked in-between bites of his sandwich; he had smeared jam on his chin and peanut butter on his nose. "Do you wanna get some drinks and then we can go down nocturnal alley." Carlos turned to James "with one hundred percent sincerity I can say I think you're prettier than a snake."

Clara found them later terrorizing the bats, she attempted to scold them but only set them off into another round of giggles. Her phone went off and she went off to answer it.

"I want to be batman!" Carlos said excitedly waving his arms around "you're to young to be batman" Hortense argued. Clara waved Kendall over and he moved away from the conversation. "No I'm not," Carlos argued back.

"You totally are" James told Carlos laughing, "but you know who was ten?" Hortense said slyly, James grinned along with Hortense "no." Carlos said sternly "he was a youthful ward" James hinted gleefully. "You are totally robin!"

"Noooooooooo!"

"Who is robin?" Kendall asked them as he walked back over, "Carlos" they chorused and Carlos pouted. Kendall tilted his head "yeah- I can see that?" Carlos glared angrily; "sooo-" James said turning to Kendall "what was that about?"

Kendall grinned widely "remember when Hal's ice cream place closed down do to health violations which had nothing to do with us." James looked away and Carlos groaned "I miss Hal's now Hortense and I have to buy rainbow ice cream from the grocery store on Sundays!"

"You still get ice cream? You know what never mind! Anyway they turned it into a dinner and mum got a job there, it pays way better and they're way more flexible on their hours!" he told them excitedly "That great Kendall!" Hortense cheered and James grasped his shoulder excitedly.

"Hey Kendall... What did you guys do to Hal's ice cream place?"

**********-_BTR_-**********

James went back home a couple of days later, his mum was barely ever in but everyone assured him it was the 'healthy' thing to do (well except Mrs Mitchell who tended to forget he was even staying with her.) Mrs Diamond did make some kind of effort though (she threw money on the problem and hoped it would go away) and set the boys up to go camping. Unfortunately it was under the supervision of James' un-favourite nanny Jacinta (the one with the short fuse.)

It turned out Jacinta was a different kind of short fuse all together when they got to the campground and she presented James with 'sorry your parents are getting divorced' fireworks. He blinked in surprise at her "I knew you weren't a very good nanny" he told her accusingly, grinning as he took the fireworks "no" she told him with a smirk "it'll be awesome- just don't blow off your fingers… and maybe not tell your friends where you got them."

Clara and Jacinta were now tying for best nanny. Clara was sweet and kind, she helped him with homework and went on stake out missions and was practically his surrogate mum. On the other hand 'fireworks'… It was a tough call.

When James presented them to the boys, hidden in his bag and exclaimed proudly that he 'knew a guy.' The boys had been suitably impressed though Hortense was quick to ban Carlos from actually getting to light any, which instigated a lot of pouting.

They spent the day doing camping things (James and Carlos were very smug when their tent didn't fall down for once- their practice had actually paid off!) they skulked around the forest capturing small animals and then letting them go (except for a racoon Carlos wanted to put in Vince's room to scare him.) They roasted the appropriate foods over an open fire- Marshmallows, sausages and corn on a cob (mostly to see if it would explode… it totally did.)

After the 'corn on a cob incident' Jacinta sent them all shame faced to their respective tents, and went back to cursing at her phone for it's lack of reception (she also liked to curse the ground for being uneven and the woods for being to 'woodsy.') Needless to say she was easy to sneak past (though James suspected the particularly big show of her reading a magazine may have been… you know for show.)

The plan went off without a hitch right up to the point where they actually launched the things into the air. Apparently not thinking through that Jacinta was not deaf and would have to come and break up the shenanigans (in which she didn't bother to hide her amusement- James had been right, she **was** an awful nanny.)

When they got back to the tent- they had inevitably all ended up in Hortense and Kendall's tent as always (though for once not because James and Carlos' tent had fallen down in the middle of the night.) They zipped their sleeping bags together (except James who for some reason now doesn't like to share his sleep space) and Kendall grinned widely.

"Want to see the surprise?" they boys looked surprised "How have you been keeping these cool?" Hortense asked in surprise taking the wrapped ice cream, Kendall revealed the only other thing in the esky- a bag full of ice. "A bag full of ice for four ice creams? Was that worth it?" James asked curiously, Kendall chucked a double choc fudge ice cream at his head.

"I don't know, was it?" he asked smugly, James stared blissfully at the frozen treat "double choc fudge!" he said happily and tackled Kendall to the ground in a big hug "thanks Kendall!"

Hortense laughed at the two "you guys are **so** close now" he wrapped his arm around Carlos "should we be jealous"" they both stared at the smart boy incredulously. "What?" they asked simultaneously Carlos let out a mock gasp "look Hortense! They're even speaking at the same time! I think we've been replaced!"

Hortense giggled "Carlos! I'm feeling very insecure right now!" Carlos pulled his friend closer "that's okay Hortie," he patted the boy on the head "you still have me!" Hortense snorted, "like I could ever get rid of you" he crossed his arms at the two other boys "any of you!" Carlos pouted, "Why would you want to?" Hortense put on a show of thinking it over "hmmm you know I can't actually think of a reason-"

"Damn straight" James piped up "because we're awesome!" Hortense laughed and looked down at his ice cream "you didn't get rainbow?" he pouted, as Kendall looked studiously away "oh do you like rainbow?"

"It's okay Hortense" Carlos told him "we'll have some on Sunday!" James made a face "you guys are still doing that?" Carlos rolled his eyes "of course! I mean if I don't schedule time with him I'll never hang out with him- you guys are hogs!" Hortense nods "and Carlos spends only like every hour of the day with you James!" Kendall and James shared a look "that" Kendall said slowly "is so not the case."

Hortense rolled his eyes "yeah well not now" Carlos snickered "yeah not since Hortense began scheduling equal amounts of time..." Hortense flushed "What?" they exclaimed in surprise "well yeah" Hortense blushed darker and pulled out that journal that Kendall said they couldn't read. He opened in halfway- Kendall had obviously stopped them before they got to that part. There were two charts with names and numbers.

"What does that mean?" James pointed next to his name- his number was the highest. "that," Hortense pointed "is how many hours I've spent with you this week." Carlos snatched the book, "and this is the number of hours over several weeks- see I'm coming out under, but Sunday balances us out!"

Kendall and James held the book in surprise "oh..." Kendall said in a small voice "why- why did you do this?" Hortense rolled his eyes "I love you guys you know, equally- I just want to be sure you all know it!" Kendall smiled softly "of course that's it..."

"What else would it be, Ken? I swear sometimes you over think things!" Kendall crosses his eyes, "I don't!" he lied and grinned shamelessly sharing a smile with James. "Come outside with me James" Carlos said spontaneously, "I saved a few of the fire crackers" he whispered. James let out a wide grin "yeah... we'll just be-" they ran out of the tent giggling.

Hortense grinned, sitting down in the tent and taking a lick of his choc chip ice cream "he seems better." Kendall flopped down next to him, picking up his book "good." Kendall said tracing his fingers across the numbers.

"It's because he's been getting like double my Hortense time," Hortense laughed at Kendall's complaint and laid down next to him. "Did you mean it when you said you loved us equally?" Kendall asked him, concentrating hard on his ice cream and not his friend.

"Well yeah" he replied confidently "that doesn't mean you aren't still my best friend!" Kendall grinned widely "good!" He grabbed his hand "your mine too!" Hortense snorted, "I know, I'm not actually that insecure" Kendall flushed "and your not anymore either, right?" Kendall stared at his friend in once horrifying moment and then gave him a faux innocent look.

"What ever do you mean?" Hortense rolled his eyes "you and James aren't as stealthy as you think." Kendall groaned, "It's okay" Hortense assures him, "you reached out to someone... Someone who wasn't me, even if in a convoluted way it was about Carlos and I, and that's good because I think we all need each other, you know."

"I think it makes more sense to you now" Kendall sighed, "that's was a stupid way to do it." Hortense grinned, "Yeah well I'm not the plan guy- I think that's your job."

"It's so not!" He complained and then they sat in comfortable silence for a few minuets. Kendall turned to Hortense with a ghost of a smile "hey Hort." his friend looked up lazily "hmm."

"Wanna stick our melted ice creams in James' sleeping bag?"

"Yeah. I'd like that."

**********-_BTR_-***********

Time passes and the more things change, the more they stay the same. They all manage to stay together, to be the same people. No matter where they are.

"Duck!" Kendall hissed at James, who ducked his head low from behind the couch so the top of his head could no longer be seen. "You almost got us caught!" James glared "well now I can't see anything! So how is that gonna help us!" Kendall snuck a look up from the couch and then ducked back down, "shit, shit. Okay I think we're good!"

"Hey" Carlos voice sung out "where did the ice cream go?" They heard Logan let out an exasperated sigh "I just bought some- don't tell me you ate it all, you know the grocery store isn't open on Sundays!" James hugged the tub of rainbow ice cream and Kendall eyed it distastefully, there was rustling.

"Look" Logan sighed "get back to your homework Carlos and I'll be with you in a second." Carlos groaned, "You know- I think our time should involve less flowers!" James supressed a giggle, he could hear Carlos fidgeting wildly and there was a rumbling noise of Carlos moving the table with his twitching leg.

"What-cha doing" Carlos called, "none of your business Carlos, now getting back to studying- I want to hear you explain to me what photosynthesis is to me in a minuet." Carlos groaned loudly "ARGH! Logan you are no fun!"

There was more shuffling and then "there!" Logan said happily shuffling to the table "yay!" Carlos yelled "rainbow ice cream!"

Kendall and James shared a horrified look as Logan called out "rainbow ice cream is just vanilla ice cream and food colouring you morons!"

They both stood up half guiltily and half horrified, Carlos glared at them a spoon sticking out of his mouth, "you guys are stoopid" he told them through a mouthful of ice cream. "If you guys are desperate- grab your books and I'll help you with your homework too…" Logan sighed.

"Ew!" James said, "I don't want to do homework!" Logan gave him an incredulous look "then why have you been *doing* this?" The boys shrugged.

"Huh- I guess I don't know anymore" Kendall confessed, and Logan glared. "So are you two going to quit sabotaging us?" James gave Logan a horrified look "Logan! Why are you trying to sabotage the time me and Kendall spend together? Why of all the nerve!"

**As always please review: I'd love to hear your comments about the story as a whole and a reminder to all I like requests so if you want me to write something (that is within my wheelhouse that is) I probably will. **

**FIN**


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